Camera: The camera is an important peice of equipment and without it we will not be able to film because of this we need to think about aspect of risk around it:
Breaking the Camera We have to think about where we place the camera for example if we were to break the camera it would be certain to break, because of this we must make sure that it is fixed to the tripod or that we are holding it correctly, another aspect would be water damage weather that be from the weather or from carelessness with drinks, we must make sure that the camera is either coverd with a waterproof sheet or well away from any liquids that may be knocked over.
We must realise that if the camera were to be damaged while Emily and I had care of it we would have to pay for any breakages or a new camera if it could not be fixed.
Breaking the Tripod The tripod can not only be broken itself but it can cause injury to us or our actors on set , if not placed in a correct area. we must be gentle with the tripod as the legs can be pulled out and broken if we are too rough with it also we must place the camera on it carefully as this could break either the camera or the top of the tripod.
We must again realise that if the tripos were to be damaged while Emily and I had care of it we would have to pay for any breakages or a new tripod if it could not be fixed.
Injuries to us with the Tripod If we do not place the tripod in a certain area because of the legs, we may get tripped up this causing injury to ourselves and a possible breakage to teh tripod.
Health and safety of cast and crew When we're filming we need to consider the health and safety of the cast and crew , we will need to make sure they are being looked after and are safe in the surroundings that we put them in, as it is our set it is our responsability to make sure that they are safe and are not going to get injured.We must also consider if any of the cast members fall ill, who will replace them with as to not slow down production so that it is completed on time. When filming, we will check our area to make sure there are no health and safety risks where we choose to film, this could include such aspects as crossing roads, dangerous weather conditions other situations that may become an issue. Emily and I will take all responsabilities for any situations that may occur dangerous or not.
Thursday 17 February 2011
Actor/ Character Profiles
Name: Ian Clarke
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Character: Mysterious villian
Costume: All black, coat, jeans, boots
Name: Phoebe Clarke
Age: 15
Gender: Female
Character: Young victim
Costume: Long black dress (full length sleeves etc)
Tuesday 15 February 2011
15/2/11- Our Final Storyboard.
A title scene of Mine and Emilys name saying that we directed and filmed the the opeining scene again interrupting the tension and setteling the audience before the next bit of action.
Thriller Planning
We started by brainstorming the ideas that we had for our own Thriller opening scene, we decided the most important aspects of Thriller that we needed to explore were:
Props/Costume:We want an Ace of spade card, book, pen, rope and a chair.
Lighting/music:We want to use sinister and dark music with sips and peaks to add to the tension of the drama which is being filmed. Lighting will also be dark and mostly natural lighting to add to the naturalistic nature, but any shots inisde might use artifical lighting.
Characters:We decided after brainstorming we wanted a child like characeter and a male mysterious character.
Set:We wanted to use a field or woods and a garage or house something with a large and empty space.
Sub Genre:Ideally we would like to create a horror thriller to show and produce.
Storyline:Our storyline is a bit mixed and match it dips in to lots of different stories but they all revolve around a mysterious man and a young girl.
Location Research
We decided during this lesson that we wanted a young girl in a chase scene from the perspective from our male mysterious character in a field or wood setting. We then decided during this lesson Emily and I would go and look at local settings that we thought would suit what we wanted.
Field behind the media block: We first looked at and took pictures of the field behind the media block.
Advantages: It was a large open space which is what we wanted, as it resembles a space that anyone can walk by.
Disadvantages: It has alot of surrounding buildings , which obviously resemble the buildings and fittings of a school. This may result in it looking un proffessional and confusing our audience as we have not set it
in a school and therefore the scene would look out of place.
Long Stretch of grass alongside the school tennis court
Advantages: This is good as it is a thin piece of grass which allows teh camera to just film the grass and the character.
Disadvantages: It is not large enough area and there isnt enough grass, we want it to be a wide field which can be scary looking if noone else is around, this is not wide enough.
Large Sports Field:
Advanatages: It is large enough to run around in certain areas without having other buildings and fittings that are not appropriate to the shot, it also has a wood which means we might be able to use to make the space seem wider and more deserted.
Disadvantages: There is a large pilon and sports equipment in certain areas of the field which may get caught in shot, if the equipment is shown in shot then it may ruin the feel of the piece and make it look unproffessional.
Field behind the media block: We first looked at and took pictures of the field behind the media block.
Advantages: It was a large open space which is what we wanted, as it resembles a space that anyone can walk by.
Disadvantages: It has alot of surrounding buildings , which obviously resemble the buildings and fittings of a school. This may result in it looking un proffessional and confusing our audience as we have not set it
in a school and therefore the scene would look out of place.
Long Stretch of grass alongside the school tennis court
Advantages: This is good as it is a thin piece of grass which allows teh camera to just film the grass and the character.
Disadvantages: It is not large enough area and there isnt enough grass, we want it to be a wide field which can be scary looking if noone else is around, this is not wide enough.
Large Sports Field:
Advanatages: It is large enough to run around in certain areas without having other buildings and fittings that are not appropriate to the shot, it also has a wood which means we might be able to use to make the space seem wider and more deserted.
Disadvantages: There is a large pilon and sports equipment in certain areas of the field which may get caught in shot, if the equipment is shown in shot then it may ruin the feel of the piece and make it look unproffessional.
Costumes and Props for our Thriller Opening scenes
Costumes
For the male character we want the costume to be simple and plain black. As we see him once or twice quickly on screen . We thought that by wearing all black, plain clothing this would give the character mystery and darkness and addd a sinister feeling.
For the young girl tied to the chair, we wanted to put her in a dress as this would add the vision of a young girl, showing that she has vulnerable and naive nature, We also wanted to put her in balck to add to the dark and sinister feeling of film.
Props
Book: a book is a key prop in our opening scene as it belongs to the mysterious man like a scrapbook, it will have images and writing in.
Pen:This goes along with the book and may be a fountain pen.
Ace of spades card: I feel this prop adds mystery, as it's an abstract prop used only in a close up as a drop of blood splatters onto it.
Rope:the young girl in our piece is tied to a chair with her hands behind her back they are tied together with rope.
All of these props are easy to get hold of and add a certain edge and power to the thriller peice.
For the male character we want the costume to be simple and plain black. As we see him once or twice quickly on screen . We thought that by wearing all black, plain clothing this would give the character mystery and darkness and addd a sinister feeling.
For the young girl tied to the chair, we wanted to put her in a dress as this would add the vision of a young girl, showing that she has vulnerable and naive nature, We also wanted to put her in balck to add to the dark and sinister feeling of film.
Props
Book: a book is a key prop in our opening scene as it belongs to the mysterious man like a scrapbook, it will have images and writing in.
Pen:This goes along with the book and may be a fountain pen.
Ace of spades card: I feel this prop adds mystery, as it's an abstract prop used only in a close up as a drop of blood splatters onto it.
Rope:the young girl in our piece is tied to a chair with her hands behind her back they are tied together with rope.
All of these props are easy to get hold of and add a certain edge and power to the thriller peice.
Friday 11 February 2011
Inception- Film Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VXkUzf1et4 (video will not work, as embeding rights have been taken away)
Film: Inception
Year realeased: 2010
Director: Christopher Nolan
Famous Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Sound: To intorduce the distrubuter for inception heavy stringed instrument is played in collision with the images and logos, this sound builds up and then we get the silent in comapriosn noise of waves beating against rocks, on top of this the audience can hear children laughing and scremaing, but they only see a small amount of the children which allows for the sound to be intriging but not significant to ponder on for the rest of the film. Within the opening scene a wind sound can also be heard along with the sea to cause an eery atmosphere and add to the confusion of where the film may be set. Compared with Seven this opening scene holds alot of dialouge between charcaters and this takes place throughout most of the scene, but the dialouge is often sharp and unclear which adds mystery and suspense. Towards the end of the scene we hear what sounds of a chorus of chanting people along with simple sounds of doors opening and closing and objects being moved or emphasis being made on words by hitting objects etc.
Mise en Scene:We are first intorudced to a beach setting within the opening scene of Inception, which is a location that most people are familiar of, which makes any events that occur there more interesting and tense for an audience to watch. Alot of the characters are in suits or uniforms to show importance and also danger, as alot of business good or bad can occur from this.The house is very oriental and well decorated making th audience assume money and dodgy dealings may be involved which may excite and add tension for the audience. a spinning top is adding which may symbloise how quick time can pass or a childlike meaning either way it is a interesting concept to add into such an adult and serious film.
Camera Work: During the opening scene for this film a large variety of shots are used in comparison to other thriller i have seen the tension and atmosphere is created more by the speech which incoporates alot of mid- shot and long shots and alot of close ups, how ever there are really any extreme close ups, which is not always the typical way of a thriller film.
Editing:This film does not follows the normal trend of using dark, dim or brown coloured washes throughtout the film instead it uses natural lighting in most scenes as the whole film is based on dreams which are often light. Although certain scenes are dark and this is where alot of the sinister dealings take place the edit of using quick shots to add tension and braking this up by using clips of child like objects help hold and add tension to the scene.
Titles: There are no titles to be shown in this clip of 'Inception' only right at the start.
Film: Inception
Year realeased: 2010
Director: Christopher Nolan
Famous Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Sound: To intorduce the distrubuter for inception heavy stringed instrument is played in collision with the images and logos, this sound builds up and then we get the silent in comapriosn noise of waves beating against rocks, on top of this the audience can hear children laughing and scremaing, but they only see a small amount of the children which allows for the sound to be intriging but not significant to ponder on for the rest of the film. Within the opening scene a wind sound can also be heard along with the sea to cause an eery atmosphere and add to the confusion of where the film may be set. Compared with Seven this opening scene holds alot of dialouge between charcaters and this takes place throughout most of the scene, but the dialouge is often sharp and unclear which adds mystery and suspense. Towards the end of the scene we hear what sounds of a chorus of chanting people along with simple sounds of doors opening and closing and objects being moved or emphasis being made on words by hitting objects etc.
Mise en Scene:We are first intorudced to a beach setting within the opening scene of Inception, which is a location that most people are familiar of, which makes any events that occur there more interesting and tense for an audience to watch. Alot of the characters are in suits or uniforms to show importance and also danger, as alot of business good or bad can occur from this.The house is very oriental and well decorated making th audience assume money and dodgy dealings may be involved which may excite and add tension for the audience. a spinning top is adding which may symbloise how quick time can pass or a childlike meaning either way it is a interesting concept to add into such an adult and serious film.
Camera Work: During the opening scene for this film a large variety of shots are used in comparison to other thriller i have seen the tension and atmosphere is created more by the speech which incoporates alot of mid- shot and long shots and alot of close ups, how ever there are really any extreme close ups, which is not always the typical way of a thriller film.
Editing:This film does not follows the normal trend of using dark, dim or brown coloured washes throughtout the film instead it uses natural lighting in most scenes as the whole film is based on dreams which are often light. Although certain scenes are dark and this is where alot of the sinister dealings take place the edit of using quick shots to add tension and braking this up by using clips of child like objects help hold and add tension to the scene.
Titles: There are no titles to be shown in this clip of 'Inception' only right at the start.
Se7en- Film analysis
Film: Seven
Year realeased: 1995
Director: David Fincher
Famous Stars: Morgan Freeman & Brad Pitt
Sound: The score used in the opening scene of 'Seven' causes an atmosphere straight away, with a constant beat that almost follows the pattern of a beating heart. The sound seems very manufactered with sounds that seem to be stratches on a old record, when a significant name or image is being shown a sound of a small explosion can be heard over the music to create the state of mind of the character that we are being shown. This piece of music builds up tension and atmosphere throughout this opening credits, which adds to the audiences feelings and intises them to watch further. Throughout this opening scenes, there are a series of images that link nicely to the disturbed nature of the music, these images are linked with the typical sounds of the object that is being used aswell as the constant beat and odd scrathing sounds, these images sometimes triggers the change in music or the adding of the specific sound effects. These sound blips almost ditract the audiences attention at times and the images bring them back adding the typical thriller mystery and tension, towards the end of teh opening scene the music becomes a rock beat and a lot quicker.
Mise en Scene:We are intraduced to the film via a book with sunlight coming through the pages, immediatly this is intriguing and makes the audience what to know more,we see the shadow of a hand and as this hand moves acroos the page we are introduced to the distrubter name 'new line cinema' we then go to a black screen with white writing in a very abstract font immediatly showing the genre of the film with the contrast in black background and white font. We then get intoduced to several images of hands and instruments such as blades and other office equipment. As the last images fade we see flashes on numbers and letters and then the title of the film flashed quickly to build tension and mystery, the audience is then faced with some imgaes of a male scrapping his fingerprints off this immeduatly tells us that this is someone who knows and delved in crime often, this then contarcst with several images of the same man making a cup of tea and filing, which calms the audience in to a senzse of security by this chaacter carrying out these simple tasks. in the following 20-22 seconds the audience is faced with images of books pictures, writing that all seem to be in clean colours eg. white, red, black but all have fuzzy or hazy outlines. This all shows a crazy or disorted mind of the charcater that the audience will now want to know so much about.
Camera Work: During the opening scene for this film it does not show a large variety of shots as the tension and atmosphers i created by the secretcy within the extreme close up shots used throughout.Between the images which have been chosen to cause a large effect and the music which is very different and almost futuristic, the camera shots themselves can get lost and more focus is pushed onto the images. The camera occasionally pans across the screen but is always in extreme close up as to never expose the charcater at this point.
Editing:This film follows the normal trend of using dark, dim or brown coloured washes throughtout the film to inforce the fact that this film has been created with a thriller genre in mind. This causes a sinister feel as it becomes clear that alot of events happen in the dark or including shadows, the transitions are very quick and can often be replayed over 4 times in qucik consession to get the desired eery and racey atmosphere, a mixture of short and long shots are used to always grab and re-grab the audience attention but these scenes are not always put together.
Titles: The titles themselves are a very small part of the opening scene but are there enough to let the audience know important information, such as the director, production company and any major stars within the movie itself. They are set on a black backgorund in white abstarct writing in a small font, but by using a contarsting colours the font is not lost but pushed to the front of the screen even though the are sometimes flashed or set slightly to the left or right of the screen.
Thursday 10 February 2011
Research of Audiences of Thriller Films
Thrillers are not everyone's favourite films, one reason maybe that they engage and make the audience think whereas other genres of films allow the audience to relax and just enjoy and envelope themself in perhaps an ideal perfect world, whereas thriller make the audience comprehend things that happen within life but perhaps not on such a large scale as the show to us.Another reason maybe that thrillers are aimed at certain ages and genders, Sam Milne within my media class helped me to find graphs to show that this was true.
This graph shows us that it is mostly 50+ viewers that watch thrillers. i think this is because they enjoy to work out what is going to happen at the end and how are the bad/good characters before they are told often at the end.
This graph shows us that it is mostly 50+ viewers that watch thrillers. i think this is because they enjoy to work out what is going to happen at the end and how are the bad/good characters before they are told often at the end.
Alfred Hitchcock- Thriller's best director
Sir Alfred Hitchcock he was well known for creating suspense and was known for his psychological thrillers. He directed more than 63 films in a career spanning six decades.Some of his most famous films include 'Vertigo', 'North by Northwest', 'Psycho' and 'Rear Window' From the sources it shows how successful Hitchcock was from 1940-1976, this is based on the gross profits of the films at that time. Hitchcock helped shape thriller and is one of the only directors who is true to thriller itself as most thrillers in modern times are 'hybrid' thrillers such as horror thrillers & action thrillers to name two. Hitchcock is regarded as the greatest British filmmaker, he even came first in a 2007 vote of film critics in the Daily Telegraph; which said that he was: "Unquestionably the greatest filmmaker to emerge from these islands, Hitchcock did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him. His flair was for narrative, cruelly withholding crucial information (from his characters and from us) and engaging the emotions of the audience like no one else.- The Daily Telegraph.
I also believe having looked closer at Hitchcock and his thriller films i think that hitchcocks films were not only the best thrillers of Hitchcocks time but the best to date as they have all the quailties that are expected of a classic thriller and this was never comprimised by crossing a thriller with another genre of film, by doing this he created a totally different effect to what we see ina thriller today but it still worked and created the desired effect. Albert Hitchcock sadly died on the 29 April 1980 aged 80.
Thriller Conventions
Within groups we mind mapped on what we thought the conventions of a thriller were, we discovered:
Lighting is normally darkend to create a sinister and evil atmosphere.
Tension is built up through the film often with smaller peaks of tension throughout leading to the end.
Heavy strings are often used as a non digetic soundtrack to again help build and add tension, this can often play the biggest part in building tension with the audience.
Setting and atmosphere is normally dark and can be set in a well known area such as a city, wood, island etc.
There is usually a female or child like character within a thriller and these are usually percieved as the vunerable character.
Normally ends with a cliffhanger to surprise the audience and leave them wanting to see more.
A twist normally takes place at the end of the film which the audience does not expect.
There is often a crime often murder that holds the plot but can be such crimes as kidnap, rape& burgulary.
Strange things can occur in normal situation.
Often foreshadows within the opening scene, to again add tension and engage the audiences interests.
Title sequence sometimes reflects on the character's psychological state.
Likely to leave a few cliff hangers to keep the audience "on the edge of their seats".
Lighting is normally darkend to create a sinister and evil atmosphere.
Tension is built up through the film often with smaller peaks of tension throughout leading to the end.
Heavy strings are often used as a non digetic soundtrack to again help build and add tension, this can often play the biggest part in building tension with the audience.
Setting and atmosphere is normally dark and can be set in a well known area such as a city, wood, island etc.
There is usually a female or child like character within a thriller and these are usually percieved as the vunerable character.
Normally ends with a cliffhanger to surprise the audience and leave them wanting to see more.
A twist normally takes place at the end of the film which the audience does not expect.
There is often a crime often murder that holds the plot but can be such crimes as kidnap, rape& burgulary.
Strange things can occur in normal situation.
Often foreshadows within the opening scene, to again add tension and engage the audiences interests.
Title sequence sometimes reflects on the character's psychological state.
Likely to leave a few cliff hangers to keep the audience "on the edge of their seats".
10/2/11- Created Questionnaire and Continued Storyboard
Today we decided that we needed to create a questionnaire to get an idea of what our audience would want to see and what they already watch, as this would give us a clearer way to take our clip and make it more accessable to the audience that we wanted to aim it at. Created a series of 9 questions to do this, which including such questions as how often they watch thrillers, what is their favourite sub genre of thriller and what is their favourite thriller. This was not to copy ideas but to adapt and gain different ideas such as music, lighting, and costumes etc. to develop and add depth to our own thriller opening scene.
8/2/11- Brainstorming and storyboarding.
Today Emily and I decided we would work together as we both trust eachother to work well and to both put in the same amount of work and opinions. With having both taken a drama course or attended a drama school we are able to have a unique and different dramatical persepctive on thriller situations, which others may not think of, we decicded to talk about what we viewed as a thriller and in what style we wanted to film our opening scene in. We had previously watched the trailer to Seven (Se7en) and we liked the quick paced image based style of the opening scene, we started a small scale basic storyboard just to put down ideas and also a brainstorm to get down a general idea of sets, props, characters, sub genres and music within a basic thriller to advance our ideas that we could expand on to get the best performance that we could to film.
We also decided what are title shots would look like to add in to our Opening scene as this was a simple thing to create and could be added in at a later time.
Title Shot: We decided on a black background as this would carry on the dark feel that we want to show throughout a peice, we chose a white text as this would make it pop out and draw attention to teh information being shown to the audience.
We used a text called Chiller, as the style was creepy and different and again followed the sequence of horror and darkness.
We also decided what are title shots would look like to add in to our Opening scene as this was a simple thing to create and could be added in at a later time.
Title Shot: We decided on a black background as this would carry on the dark feel that we want to show throughout a peice, we chose a white text as this would make it pop out and draw attention to teh information being shown to the audience.
We used a text called Chiller, as the style was creepy and different and again followed the sequence of horror and darkness.
Tuesday 8 February 2011
As premliminary task
Premilinary Task 27/1/11
Francesca Burchill, William Stevenson, Elizabeth Tye.
This is finialised video, we decide to not add any sound as at certain times the sound came back and the natural hum of everyday life played through and made the rest seem unrealistic and unprofessional so we thought by keeping all sound that already played through on the video (natural sound-digetic sound) itself it would make it more naturalistic which is what we wanted to show to the audience.
Francesca Burchill, William Stevenson, Elizabeth Tye.
This is finialised video, we decide to not add any sound as at certain times the sound came back and the natural hum of everyday life played through and made the rest seem unrealistic and unprofessional so we thought by keeping all sound that already played through on the video (natural sound-digetic sound) itself it would make it more naturalistic which is what we wanted to show to the audience.
Ending of Story Board
Shot one- Shows a close up of the male character in diolouge " im really sorry" this shot last between 3-5 seconds.
Shot two- A reverse shot of the female answering " are you going to move then?" this is agaiana a close up and will last between 3-6 seconds as time needs to give a facial expression.
Shot three- Shows the female leaving with a mid shot close up of the male characters shock face thisa shot last around 5-7 seconds.
Shot four- Shows door closing and male character working of screen to end.
Story Board- Real stroy
Shot One- Male character walks toward the camera, camera slightly to the left of the charcter this shot last for up to 5 seconds given enough time to capture the action.
Shot Two- Shot of male character through the glass in the door, Camera on opposite side of the door to character this is a mid shot and will last for 3-5 seconds.
Shot Three-Close up of male charcater pushing the door into the room, shot lasts up to 3 seconds. Camera is on the same side of the door as the male character.
Shot Four-Showing the male character walking into the room with the ca,era om the other side of the door to show him walking in.
Shot Five- Shows female charcter shown from a long shot walking, with the character on her left.
Shot Six-Shows a close up of the female charcters face with a shocked expression.
Shot Seven- Shows a long shot of both characters interacting.
Shot Eight- Close up of book sfaling to the floor by both characters feet, this scene would last between 5-7 seconds.
Shot Nine- Shows the two scrambaling for the papers on the floor and then standing up the camera follows the charcaters up,this is a mid shot and will last between 2-5 seconds.
Shot Ten- This shows the two characters interacting with a long shot this shot will last between 2-4 seconds.
Shot Eleven-Shows a close up of male character in dialouge "hey" this scene last aound 3 seconds.
Shot Twelve- this shot is teh second shot in a shot reverse shot and shows the female character answering with "hi?" and again will last around 3 seconds.
Story Board- Original idea
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)