THRILLER TITLE SEQUENCE FINAL EDIT

Question 7: What do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

qUESTION

Q 1 forms and conventions

here are the 9 shots i chose from my opening title sequence of my thriller, We followed the pattern of lead blockbuster Panic room, and the sequence the titles appear. This would explain why director, and other important titles are nearer the end, we enjoyed this different order and felt it helped make our thriller sequence stand out.
Our opening does not give alot away, not showing too much of a opening gives more mystery, but alot of the shots gave great indications that something had happend and we would definetly find out if we continued to watch the film, this being similar to the opening of the film "se7en" staring Bradd Pitt. Using over lapping and fading and different effects in our opening it gives a dark and spookey feel, this also comparing to Se7ens opening.

Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing?

How one media product can protray a particular sterotype.

Using only a young girl in our thriller opening, it can be used to our advantage to draw in more viewers in many ways. it firstly attracts teenagers, thinking the film will be aimed at their age group being a similar age to the main character, and can relate more to the story. It can also attract to a wider range as more of a chilling film, as young children usually spook people out, and make films far more thrilling.

This can be in comparrison to a character in the film "dont say a word" were actress britney murphy plays a very dark hospital patient, the following photo shows her in costume similar to our main character Jessica. She also has a comparision of using a stuffed toy, this shows signs of a demented child hood we tried to protray that Jessica has a childhood issue that definetly has unfinished buisness.

Who Would be Ideal For my Thriller Video?
the sort of audience we were aiming for is 16-25, maybe college students, or unviresity students...someone into clever and intreguing films. A sociable person who loves to discuss films, music and telivison! the sort of girl who takes the trip to cinema with friends, or her boyfriend. Not a demented grunger, but a girl with a darker sence of style and twist in imagination. heres a photo of what her handbag would look like!!

Question 8: Audience Feedback and Comments!

Here are some videos that we took before, during and after the screening:

Harry Kinsley's comment after watching 'Of Unsound Mind'

Michael Lewry's comment.

Francene and Alexandra's comment.

The atmosphere before the viewing of all our clips in 'The Green Screen'.

We were pleased with all the comments and found that all of them were postive and was happy that they found that our film was unique and interesting.

Evaluation Q;5. who would be the audience for my media product?

'Farhana, 17, currently studying for her A levels, a particular interest in Psychology, loves to go out with her friends to the cinema, shops in high street; Topshop, River island, Dorothy Perkins'

From this interview that i conducted with Farhana, i feel that she is the main audience for our Thriller film 'Of Unsound Mind'. I felt that she was of the right age group as it is centered around a teenager-- of which she is. I also think it would mainly appeal to her because of her general hobbies and day to day life, she enjoys watching television and films and also has a specialised interest in Psychology, as she does the lesson in her A levels which makes our film even more of an appeal to her.

EVAULATION. Q2. How my media product represents particular social groups

'Carrie (1979)'

I felt that the film Carrie was quite similar to my film 'Of Unsound mind' I think this is especially shown in the two stills above.

Carrie, is about a white, young adolescent female of a middle class origin, this compares fully to the Character in our Thriller opening-- White, teenage female. For this reason i feel that the social group that my thriller film would represent would be young, white, middle class people who may have a particular interest in Psychological thrillers. The comparison of the Mise en Scene in both 'Carrie' and 'Of Unsound Mind' is quite similar with the main characters both in some sort of hospital or institutional gowns. The only difference i found in the two stills is that in my thriller opening the surroundings are in an open area (a band stand) whereas Carrie is in an enclosed environment which could represent being trapped not only in a room but also in her mind, which would have been an effective thing for my group to do to show further representations.

'Carrie' I felt inspired me because though it is an old film, made in 1979 it is still widely enjoyed today and may not be what is considered a 'conventional' Thriller film. Carrie's frame of mind was attempted to be recreated in our Thriller opening, using effects that may give the audience the idea that our character too has powers beyond normal means.

EVALUATION: Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

To understand and mantain enough knowledge in the different forms and conventions of opening title sequences we watched several different film openings of all different generes especially openings that are films based on the Thriller genre. The main forms and conventions we found in majority of title sequences are the institutional ident of the production companies always coming immediately at the start of any opening.

These are 9 shots from my title sequence created for a Thriller opening. Our opening i feel both represents real conventions for this kind of media product and but also challenges it in certain aspects. The order of our opening titles are in correspondence of the order they are presented in Panic Room's opening title sequence with the exception of where the film title is placed. However, we realised after carefully placing our titles that Panic Room does not follow the order of titles that a lot of other films have, with things such as the director, writer and producer coming at the end of the title sequence instead of at the start as a lot of films do (in rank
order).
I felt that our opening sequence was most similar to the opening of the film Se7en. In the Thriller film 'Se7en' There are many differences which would make our film seem as though it does not have many or any comparisons to it, however there are certain things within our opening that correspond and are similar to it. In our opening, throughout we used fading and overlapping tools which was also used in the Se7en, mainly of close ups of miscellaneous objects like notes and diaries and books, we similarly did this when overlapped a close ups of a leaf and the teddy which was in it throughout. This is also similar to Se7en because there are various objects that are shown throughout such as note books and sharp metal objects helping to create a theme and set up an idea with the audience about what is coming in the film.

The use of sound in all the opening title sequences indicated the theme, tone and genre of the up coming movie. To show our knowledge of the forms and conventions, whilst creating our sequence we oredered the titles as we thought was appropraite and to how many would fit in our sequence to help illustrate what we wanted present. In our thriller opening 'Of Unsound Mind' we used the convention of an institutional ident to start with. using "candistudios" a low budget production company which could be like a existing company 'working title 2'.

The sound plays a very important role especailly in our opening title sequence, it was the main source that created tenstion, which we also found was similar in many film openings. The soundtrack we created had a constant heatbeat in the background, this made the tension of what would or might happen stronger and therefore more effective and so possibly reveals the pace of the entire film.

The sound plays an important part in the opening of a title sequence, the soundtrack we created was upbeat at faced paced to indicated the fast pace of the theme of the movie and genre overall. "The shinning" uses an orchestral soundtrack to open of which creates an eerie atmosphere and gives the audience a clue of what the rest of the film holds. This is similar to the film Se7en, the pace of the film, steady helps to created the wished atmosphere and so make the audience prepared for what they are about to watch in the rest of the film.

EVALUATION

1) How media product is used, developed, challenged forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is my 9 still title sequence. You could see that there were effects used to evoke a sense of thriller and tension.

Another tool that we used was layering 2 clips together so it presents a scary psychological theme, for example when she's sitting on the ban stand by herself while the walls of the band stand are moving round it expresses that she is in her own world.

For our titles we used a sharp font with a blue effect so it blends in with what the girl is wearing. Moreover the shot of the teddy bear fading out was a useful technique which flowed with the soundtrack but indicated an illusion of it disappearing hence showing an insight of the girls mind in this clip 'Of Unsound Mind'.

We used some long shots and close ups to allow the audience to see every detail of the clip and mise en scene.

Here is the title sequence of Se7en. The shots here are all close ups so it is very effective in allowing the audience to see every detail of mise en scene, similarly to how we used a close up of the teddy bear and 'Jessica's eyes'. The titles are small and in white and kiddish style writing which presents to us that it may be a psychological thriller. Compared to our titles they were spooky and striking and more memorable. Although the title sequence isn't completely similar to our title sequence, we used this title sequence to influence ours as our titles are in different places on the screen just like 'Se7en'. Moreover the effects that were used in this title sequence are similar to the way we used some effects. For example when the girl is on the bench touching the bear, we used a dark suspensed effect.

Another title sequence that we used as an influence was 'Panic Room'. We tried using the style of the titles used in the title sequence on ours which i think we have done pretty well because our titles come out as striking and suit generally well with the rest of the clip. In addition they were presented in different places of the screen like 'Panic Room'.

2) How media product represents our particular social group?

We used a young girls to attract audiences of youths which should attract these types of audiences but through the use of edit and soundtrack of the title sequence it would broaden the audience to those who like thrillers especially psychological.

In comparison to the film ' Fatal Attraction', Glenn Close is a female psycho who kills unreasonably. This similar to our film 'Of Unsound Mind' because they are both female characters which is going to attract the female audience as well as the male audience. Moreover because both are psychological thrillers it will engage those who like to watch psychological films. This character has inspired us to include a female character in our 2 minutes clip because it creates more tension as well as giving the audience ambiguous thoughts to make them want to watch more of the film.

3 &4) Media Institution that may distributes media product and why. How we would attract the audiences.

This is one of the pieces that a group of AS students made and posted it on youtube and recieved 11,458 hits which shows that it has gained a great amount of audiences. This proves that this is a realistic way of gaining a wider audience and since it was a low budget film with limited access to technology, it shows that it can still be distributed and interest others through the use of the internet. Moreover, youtube is a worldwide website that is accessed by millions of people around the world which allows distribution to a greater market and it is easier to be recognised.

Here is another clip of a singer who started off posting videos of herself singing and everytime she posted a video she recieved as many as 15 million hits. This lead to her being recognised and becoming and international singer.

5) Who would be the audience for our media product?

Our typical audience would by young female teens. Here is images of things that will be in a typical young female teens handbag and there is also a video of the target audience and why it would appeal to them.

7) What i have learnt in progression from the the preliminary task to the full product.

Here is one of the first filming activites that we had to do. This shows our steadiness of the camera and how we could use Final Cut Pro to match the clips together and make it flow. It clearly shows that we had a lot of glitches and needed more time to improve it as well as more time to practise with the tools.

And here is out final cut that we did for our final clip 'Of Unsound Mind'. You can see that we have made a major improvement as we explored Final Cut Pro and used many effects. On our first match cut activity we only learnt how to put certain clips into the timeline and not use the other effects on making it more interesting. Moreover our final cut includes sound and more effects and titles which was not included in our preliminary task. This was because it was the build up of learning more on how to use the Dual Macs and the programmes.

EVALUATION: Q8. Audience feedback and comment

Jessica Comerford: These words in the above picture are from Wordle and are the instant reactions and feedback we received from our class before showing it in the cinema. The words that were predominantly used in each groups feedback were 'Effective' 'good' 'shots' 'Breathing' and 'Soundtrack'. Although four of the words on the wordle seem to be quite general it may show that the audience did not fully take in the message that we tried to give across. It however shows that we created a competent piece that was enjoyed and we felt it represented things and feelings we wanted to get across, especially by the word 'Breathing'. A lot of the audience after watching felt that it was very different from other Thriller openings they had seen, with it not being a narrative opening.

Farhana Maleque: The words in the Wordle represent the immediate comments from the rest of our class members once they watched our 2 minute clip. I have identified that the bigger words are the ones that were the most used from the feedback. The students found our 'shots' 'really' 'effective'. Also 'soundtrack' and 'breathing' came up a lot and we were pleased to find that we successfully aimed to make the features of our clip obvious. I am pleased with all the comments and have portrayed a unique Thriller opening clip that the audience was not expecting.

EVALUATION: Q; 3+4- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? How will you attract/address your audience?

This is an example of a random students AS Media coursework which was found on Youtube and had nearly 1,500 hits.

As the media institutions have had great and vast changes over the past 10 years it has meant that thousands of aspiring movie makers or potential actors/actresses have the opportunity to share their work with a much wider audience that was ever possible before when the main media institutions were Newspapers, Radio and Mainstream television. All of which would be near impossible for a young aspiring filmmaker to have an opportunity. This is because of many reasons such as high costs which means that people like myself, a student who does not have enough money or any kind of help within the institutions would not have no source of presenting to a wider.

However with the increase of internet access in homes across the world it has meant that i, like the student in the film from above has the opportunity to share videos with a global audience getting hits in the thousands. The internet is also a free place to advertise yourself and has helped many people gain enough publicity to actually breakthrough into a film making career and also quite a lot of singers have used this institution to further or create a career an example of someone who has done this recently is Justin Bieber aged only 16. His mother started posting videos of him in 2007 on the website Youtube which eventually has led to him

becoming world famous achieving UK and US hits.

The Video on the left hand side is of Justin Bieber before he had gained any fame or even received many hits. The video on the right hand side shows how much he has progressed to the stage that he is now globally viewed on high status televison channels such as MTV. This would never have been possible if the internet as a media institution was not available. This shows that extreme success has now become available to anyone who feels they have talent in a specific area.

Filming on Location

Whilst filming, we had great luck, as the weather was perfect for the scenes we wanted to shoot, with bright sunshine we were able to film clear sunny footage with out rain or cloud. With the chosen location to be outside, there was no problems setting up the tripod, this also kept our star Jessica happy and warm.
A fue problems as you can see in the photo we have taken shooting, is the location became crowded and unfortunatly delayed us filming as we did not want any members of the public in our thriller sequence.

Insparation For Mese En Scene

We also bought a teddy from a local charity shop, to add to the childlike feeling of the coursework. This helped by battering up the teddy to make it look spookier, and to show jess had had it with her a while on her travels of murder, and mystery





. in our Coursework Jess is wearing a hospital gown to show she is an escaped mental patient, or a sick child;. this can be seen in such films like the Sixth sense, or cellular.

skills audit: creation of titles

We used our knowledge of using 'SoundTrack Pro' from our preliminary task and applied it to making our titles for our real clip. We experimented again with different fonts, style and colour to choose the best suited for our clip.

skills audit soundtrack

We used a nursery rhyme song 'twinkle twinkle as well as other sounds in soundtrack. It took us some time to choose a component of sound which matched to the soundtrack that we imported from youtube. When we experimented sounds we chose just a simple ' heartbeat' to flow with the 'twinkle twinkle' soundtrack.

Rough Cut Changes

Once we created a rough version of how our video would look like, we showed teachers in our media lesson. We had very constructive critisisom back, and it was very helpful. "of Unsound Mind" was defiently not perfect in our rough cut video. It had a lot of tweets to be done to. After mary and Mickies help we were able to make changes that would improve it greatly. Fades were added to avoid any sharpness we had(which was a lot).

after personally working on the soundtrack myself with liberty, it was nice to hear wot the teachers had to say and they seemed to be happy with it, so no changes were needed to be made there.

A big issue in our rough cut is there was way too many different effects and they needed to be drastically toned down. Too many fades made it look cheap and childish, and non-profesional at all!

Skills Audit Editing

This is a screengrab of our editing. We used many tools such as: speeding, fading, and layering. In comparison to the preliminary task we have majorly improved by linking shots together smoothly and using effects to make our clip interesting.

Creating Titles

Creating Titles

We were responsable for creating the titles for our thriller sequence. We wanted to create something that matched our footage perfectly, and we found our outcome wos very succesfull.


using the equipment " Live Type" on MAC computers at college, we were able to explore many different

• fonts


• colours


• sizes


• effects


• live effects.

in our filming, our main character (Jessica) wears a blue gown, so our font innitially was ment to be red, but we wanted it to fit exactly. So we changed to a light sky blue, wich we feel matches very nicely.

To make sure they came in suitable orders, we watched the title opening of "panic room" to find wich title should come up when, for example we found it quite rare that the director was shown at the end, instead in alot of big block busters the director is usually shown in the first three titles.

each title lasts a couple of seconds on the screen, some appearing over the footidge at the bottom, or some in suitable places when the screen is blank.

we specifily liked the final title, wich is the title of the film (wich is the only pattern we didnt follow from panic room) it fits lovely with the soundtrack so we felt it would be at peak by showing it at the end on a black background.

Using the live effect called "frigid" this caused our text to move almost as it is vibrating and shaking. This panic, and frantic feel was perfect for our sequence.

After saving each title individually, our other group members (jessica and farhana) placed them carefully were they were suited best on our footidge.

Camera Health and Safety Tutorial

As we used very expensive and vital equipment whilst shooting the footige for our film, we had to make sure we knew exactly how to use the;
camera

tripod

memory cards

hard drive

still camera

USB.

As soon as we were taught correctly by engineers, we happily went out to film on location with out any worries.

Firstly we were shown the Video camera, learning how to use its features, and different camera skills. The things that would highly benefit when filming our coursework. After being shown how to turn on and off, the zoom, focus and so on..we were shown to insert the battery at the back of the camera, as well as inserting both memory cards to maximize the amount of footage we could film.

The tripod was a vital part of health and safety, as incase the camera was not placed properly with the correct farssenings and such the camera will fall or produce unsteady shots.
the usb helped as we had four group members, it saved us fighting over the hard drive, and work was produced at the same time getting it done quicker so we were able to produce nearer to our deadline. The only problem we found is because there was not a designated USB for each group it was hard to find our work once saving it on to the USB from the drive.

Skills Audit: Filming

We went out on a sunny day to film. Because of the great weather we were able to film with efficient exposure to light. There were no distraction except that we filmed near a university which attracted students to pass by in some of our shots. This wasn't helpful as we needed to film again. Overall the location and the weather was perfect to make it a good filming day. Luckily we managed to finish all our filming on the same day.

Location Shots:

Our group found a nice quite square in the east of islington, its quite and spookey location was perfect the only trouble w e had is as the spot wos located next to a University it wos hard to film during the day with such big crowds. and found it hard to achieve the atmospher we wanted. But with careful and clever angles, we seemd to have achieved a remote location.

Camera & Health and Safety Tutorial

In order to ensure that there was no damage to equipment whilst filiming, we were given a 'Camera and Health and Safety Tutorial'. During the tutorial we were taught how to use the following peices of equipment:

• Video Camera



• Memory Card



• Tripod



• Battery



• Video Drive

The first peice of equipment we were shown was the Tripod. Here we were shown how to put the Tripod up properly, in order to keep the Video Camera safe. We were shown how to unlock the legs of the Tripod, make them all the same length (in order to keep the camera steady), and how to put the Tripod away properly. We also found that the Tripod is a good way of achiveing steady panning.

We were then shown the Battery. We were shown how to safely insert it, and to release it in order to take it out. When we moved on to look at the Video Camera we were shown where we can monitor how much Battery life we had. Like the battery, we were shown how to insert and release the Memory Card.

When we looked at the Video Camera were shown how to use its shooting features, which would all be beneficial when filming our Thriller openings. For example how to focus the camera. We were also shown how to switch the camera on and off, how to record and how to play back footage we had already shot.

Each individual group has their own Video Drive which they can save all their work on to. We were shown how to save things to the video drive and how to safely remove the drive.

Finally we were told that if it is raining when we are filming, we must cover the Video Camera with a umbrella to prevent it getting wet. We must also never touch the lense of the camera, due to leaving marks on it, and to always remember to close the lens when we are finished filming.

Changes to be made to roughcut after feedback.

After receiving feedback from my teachers on our rough cut created for the opening scene of our Thriller movie 'Of Unsound Mind' there are quite a few things that we decided to tweak or completely change. Some of these were; adding fades to avoid unsubtly or sharpness, add more to our time line sequence and also start to create titles and add the soundtrack.
At the time our rough cut was due we still had quite a lot of work to do, although the soundtrack was already almost complete we were yet to upload it. Also, we were unsure of what editing techniques we should use or effects and so in between the rough cut and final piece we have tried several different effects and modifications like chaning speed or lighting. Once we had done this we settled on just a couple of effects which we used in several shots. An example of an effect we decided to use after recieving feedback from the roughcut was unsharp mask, which we felt helped give the effect we wanted to be given in our opening for a thriller film

Inspiration for Our thriller Soundtrack

whilst researching for our soundtrack, we came across a video that was highly suitable for our thriller video, with a female vocal singing "twinkle twinkle little star" it gave our thriller a spooky and chilling atmosphere.

the video also inspired us to add extra shots to our thriller, at the end of the you tube video there is a close up of a woman's face. You will find in our thriller a close up of our main character(Jessica).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=menntxDUe4I

Rough cut edit and Changed in Light of feedback from rough cut

Here is our 'Rough Cut'. This shows all our technqiues of using the camera and editing.

The feedback that we recieved from our teachers seeing the rough cut was:
* Not to have many effects, just stick to one to portray one aspect instead of several to make it absolutely clear

* To smooth the connection between one shot to another

* Be better to do more fading shots
and
*to add a soundtrack to have that extra effect on the clip.

We now have to apply this feedback and produce a clear smooth clip of our film.

Analysis of 9 shots from Art Of The Title Sequence-- Se7en

The screen shot above is the for the opening of the film 'Se7en'. The movie's story follows a retiring detective (Morgan Freeman) and his replacement (Brad Pitt), using a joint attempt to investigate a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.

It is apparent from the moment the opening titles begin that the film will be ominous and thought provoking. You can see this via various things such as the small glimpses of objects with no meaning of yet, like the book which we see someone flicking pages, the Dollar Bill and negatives. The money that is shown in the opening, as seen in the ninth shot in the title sequence makes it clear that the film will have religious connotations as the word 'GOD' is highlight, being cut out by a character you are yet to completely see. The fact you do not immediately see the character carrying out these actions also helps the ominous effect clearly being given over to the audience.

There are many black shots in the opening scene, with titles in white, UPPERCASE. I feel that this is a very effective way of both promoting the theme of being thought provoking and displaying the credits without taking any attention away from the events being shown. The effects used on the titles in the opening had a similar appearance to the 'frigid' effect on Live Type which is where we will be creating titles for our Thriller opening and since seeing 'Se7en' i feel that it could be an effect we use in our own opening.
The majority of shots throughout the opening are close ups of miscellaneous objects around a room, the close up shots work very well as they give you a limited places to look and so emphasis's the object that may otherwise be overlooked such as a notebook.

The lighting in the scene is generally quite dull creating a dingy effect and eerie atmosphere that darkness can often create. It leads the audience to think about why they are being shown this room and that the room holds i high importance that is yet to be found out. The music and sounds in the title sequence also play a large role in getting the wished feeling of the audience across; it starts with small generally irrelevant noise like pages turning and creaking which is heard mainly throughout the title sequence, then eventually moves onto a beat being created which speeds up slowly right until the end where another reference to religion is made when it says 'you get me closer to God'.

This title sequence interested me particularly by the way the titles are laid out and the fonts, effects used for it. I also really liked the overlaying effect of things like unreadable writing and flashes of other objects over the main action being showed in the opening. I think that the overlay effect gives what may otherwise seem as a non interesting scene much more impact. What i most liked was the way the soundtrack, titles and editing produce the opening as without just one of those features it would not be such an effective scene.

Skills Audit: Livetype and Sound

Live type is a program we use at college that allows us to add text and titles to footidge. this will e helpful and ideal obviously in our coursework for adding the important titles to our thriller sequence. the program allows differnet types of font to be used, along with different colours, size and angles. Another feature Live type allows effects to be added on with motion, such as fades, disolving, bouncing and glazing. This makes the font look alot more proffesional and offers alot of different effects ideal for any situation.

SoundTrack is very similar program as Live type, but it specialises in sound, adding music and noise to footidge. Very helpful for soundtracks or just simple special effects. We will be using this feature to add a heartbeat and piano music to our coursework. It offers other sounds such as up beat and tempo music. it has alot of different ways of expressing sounds and works very well with media work.

Planning Match Cut

our synopsis " a character opens the door, walks into the room, sits opposite to the other charactr, and they share a fue lines of dialogue"

with my group, we had to include about 15 shots in our sequence of a character walking through a door with a match cut. me and my fellow group members chose a sequence of Jessica, our group member walking down a hallway and entering a toilet. it then match cut into the toilet were the other character walks out of a cubicle were they both share dialogue before the scene ends.

i think the task was succesful due to our range of shots including

• long shot
• close up
• panning
• over the shoulder

Camera and health and safety Tutorial!

In our Media lesson we were given video cameras and other equipment we were shown how to use the following peices correctly and safely; Tripod, memmory cards, battery, video drive and video camera.
Being shown how to use the tripod, we were taught how to pull out all three legs to a stable possition to hold the camera. Learning how to use the tripod was helpful whilst filming our courswork as we had stable panning and tracking with out having to hand hold the camera wich looks more ammiture.
The video camera was given to us and shown how to use properly so we could use it to its best ability when filming our thriller videos. We were shown how to zoom, look at previous footidge, focus and many more. Whilst using the video camera we were shown how to slot both memmory cards in, and how to slide in the battery.
Finally we learnt how to slide the video camera on top of the tripod, using different clasps for loser tracking, how to bring the camera higher with the tripod to have higher shots. And how to angle the camera.
with our video drive, it allows our group to save all of our work with out being erased or copied by other groups or damaged on the computer. It gives us a better chance of not loosing any work and alot easier.
Health and safety was also taught, for when we are filming with our camera, three basic rules were taught wich were:

• use an umbrella when filming if its raining to protect the camera as they are not waterproof.
• to not touch the lense and leave finger marks
• closing the lense when finishing filming.

Planning Preliminary Match Cut exercise including storyboard

We were given the synopsis we were given for this scene was:

"a character opens a door, walks into a room, sits opposite another character and they share a few lines of dialogue"

We implemented about 15 shots which included close ups of someones feet walking down the hall and a hand opening the door. We also filmed a long shot of the persons whole body so we can show the background of the setting.
We included the match cut when the girl opens the door and going into the toilet. We chose the toilet as a setting to make it strange and to build up suspense as its a closed space and kind of a secretive room. We filmed a close up of the girls face and then filmed a mid shot of another girl that she talks to. We were intending to do a shot reverse shot but when editing we didnt have sufficient footage to be able to do this but did acknowledge it.

Skills Audit: Livetype and Sound

LIVETYPE:
This is the program that allows you to add texts, objects, templates and effects. We did a practise of it on our matchcut prelimanary and added titles such as our names.
We used different kind of styles such as dissolving,fades, glows and we used different backgrounds.

For the matchcut, i created a blue font masculine style to go with the match cut just as a tester. I used some glows and decreased the size of the letters. I was also able to lengthen the time i left the title onthe sceen.

SOUNDTRACK:
This enabled me to explore different kinds of sounds and input them into one big track for the title sequence. One of the favourite sounds that i liked were the footsteps, the heart beat and the different kinds of percussion sounds which i feel would be great to be used in our thriller. There are various sound effects which is great because we have a variety to use for our title sequence.

Intro To Cameras & Health amd Safety Tutorial

Before we were allowed to start filming, we had to have a tutorial on how to use the equipment such as:

- Tripod
- Video Camera
- Memory Card
- Hard Drive

The Tripod is used to keep the camera still and is perfect to use it for panning. Also to use it for different angles as i can extend or shorten the legs.

The video camera is used to film our scenes. I learnt how to put the battery in and out. We also learnt how to switch it on, record by pressing the red button and looking back at the footage that we filmer by pressing the button on the side of the small screen. Moreover I learnt how to focus on an object in the shot to make the shot look sharp.

The 2 memory cards is inputted onto the side of the video camera and the recorded footage would be saved in there. But before recording we had to make sure that both memory cards are unlocked. When putting the footages in for editting, we insert the memory card on the memory card reader and input it to the mac computer.

The video drive is used to save and access all of our footages and work that we have done like final cut pro, soundtrack and livetype.

THE HEALTH AND SAFETY!:
* If its raining then we should use an umbrella to keep the video camera dry
* we should not touch the video camera screen as it would leave finger marks on it.
* after finishing filming then the lens should be closed.

Analysis of 9 shots from Art Of The Title Sequence

The fonts used for the titles are bold and white which contrast between the black and colourful backgrounds. The styles look friendlier, feminine and easily attracted. In 5 different shots the titles include the actor’s names which are placed on different places in the shots. Some are at the bottom of the page while others are at the centre and top. The titles are put in front of animated images so it stands out.
But some of them are off the images and are placed outside so we can clearly see the images and the titles. In the 9 shots, it consists of close-ups, mid shots and long shots to give us a brief overview of the movie.
The most interesting thing that appealed to me was the images and the colour used. They used the effects of using black as the main pictures/images while the backgrounds is another colour.

Cameras & health and Safety Tutorial

At the start of our lesson we received a cameras and health and safety tutorial to ensure that we know how to use all equipment correctly to prevent damage in any way. The equipment that we were taught about how to use were:
- Tripod
- Memory Card
- Battery
- Video Camera
- Video Drive

We learnt how to set up the Tripod correctly, making sure all legs on the tripod were the same length to make it sturdy so would not tip and damage the camera. We also learnt that its a very good way to use panning from different angles smoothly.

I also learnt how to use the video cameras that we would be operating when filming our Thriller opening. We learnt several things including where and how to place the two memory cards which will save all our footage and be what is used when transferring the footage onto the Macs, how to insert the battery, how to switch it on and off, record, play recorded clips and also things like changing the camera mode incase of a lot of sunlight and how to change from manual to automatic.

Each group has a video drive in which is used to save and access all of our filming, sounds or titles and work that we have done such as final cut pro, editing, soundtrack and livetype.

During the tutorial we were also taught that there are three basic rules to abide by the health and safty rules to make sure no damage occurs while using the equipment:
- If raining use an umbrella to protect the video camera by keeping it dry
- Do not touch the video camera lense as marks would be left which could effect quality of footage.
- When finished filming the lens should be closed.

Animatic Storyboard

PITCH

Here is Our pitch that we did through powerpoint. We showed it to our class and teacher and recieved positive feedback. One of the positive feedbacks that we recieved was that the idea of making it psychological which is interesting. They also liked the mise en scene of the setting and clothing that 'the girl' in our clip is going to wear.

Match Cut Activity

During the 'match cut activity' we had certain rules to abide by. These rules were;

- Include over the shoulder shots

- Include shot reverse shot

- Obey the 180 rule


After spending time filming our piece, we went in to the editing room; where we were able to sucessfully and smoothly create a match cut. A vital piece of our clip is the over the shoulder shot, when Jessica is walking down the corridor. However, much to our regret, we later realised we didnt include a shot reverse shot. If we were to carry out the cativity again we would add one in during the time in which Jessica and I excahnge words in the toilet.

News and current affairs

BBC broadcaster smothers terminally ill partner

I noticed this article and thought it would make an interesting thriller. The article was about an ex bbc broadcaster who smootherd his partner due to him dying of aids. I thought the fact he worked for the bbc an interesting point to work on. It could be a thriller about a famous person whos had an a second ego who was a vicous murderer!!

Thriller sub-genres

Thriller films have many different types of genres. These are:

Psychological
Sci-Fi
Spy
Horror
Comedy
Romantic
political
religious
Fictional/Factual

Out of the above I feel the one way that inspires me most is psychological thrillers. In psychological thrillers the films revolve around mind games, and characters who try and make other characters feel as though they are going crazy. I think thsi works so well because people watching find it very uneasing very quickly.

How is suspense created in 'The Others'?

I watched the film 'The Others' starring Nicole Kidman. The film was about a woman, who believed her house was haunted; only to find that it was in fact her, her family and her servants who were the real ghosts that were haunting the house.

Throughout the film suspense is created by losts of dramatic music. There are eery renditions of classic paino peices, along with sudden blasts of high sounds. This heightens the nervousness felt by the audience, as they feel worried about what is coming.

Another way suspense is created is the use of snappy and short shots. These make the film seem as though it is going at an increasing rate. As the films' speed becomes faster so does the fear factor within the audience.

Throughout the film Kidman's character has an obsession with locking doors within the house. This also adds suspense, as the viewer wants to know whats going on behind closed doors.

Suspence is the condition of being insecure or uncertain.
Dun..Dun..Duuun...

Match Cut activity.

The match cut activity we performed was given as a task that had to be completed and consist of Match cuts, abide by the 180 degree rule, over the shoulder shot and a shot reverse shot. The purpose of this exercise was so that we could gain a greater confidence with using equipment and editing resources so that we are aware and competent when coming to our actual Thriller opening.

After completing our Match Cut activity and editing where we felt appropriate, i realised that we had failed to include a shot reverse shot in our sequence. If i were to do this exercise again i would ensure i'd use a shot reverse shot. I would use this shot when the two characters in the activity were passing the object to each other in the toilets, this would have created a better effect because it could have caught a better attention to the feelings trying to be put across in the scene.

Other shots and angles we used were things such match cuts, mainly being of me walking into the toilets from the corridors to me being inside the toilet. Also things such as long shots of me walking down the corridor, close ups of the object before being transferred and also mids shots of both characters in the toilets during the switch. We also stuck to the 180 degree rule to ensure a realistic effect.

In our sequence we used an over the shoulder shot right at the start of the scene to show the character walking down the corridor, this would allow for the audience to get a sense of where the character is and the Mise on scene around her. It also gave a sense of whom the audience if were to watch would know which character to follow in following events.

Match Cut Activity

The purpose of this was to include 'over the shoulder shots' 'shot reverse shots' and we had to obey the 180 rule.

We had successfully edited our clip by adding match cuts but also filming an over the shoulder shot. We used this when Jessica was walking down the corridor.

The Match cut was seen when Jessica was walking into the toilet and we saw a shot of her going into the toilet and coming into the toilet, therefore this made the scene look like a smooth process.

However, i acknowledge that we did not include a shot reverse shot.

What we should have done is shot an over the shoulder shot of Jessica talking to Liberty and vice versa.

Overall the match cut clip was good and is played smoothly.

Skills audit soundtrack

When I first opened the software I found it quite daunting, after exploring the software a little I found it easy to use. I clicked the search tab in the bottom right window, and began to play around with the features. I selected the "genre" option and chose the "electronic" selections. After listening to a few I dragged the ones I wanted in to the soundboard. I placed them accordingly to make a sequence. I let them overlap to create a smooth mix between the different pieces. I then went to "sound effects", selected the "people" option and chose three sound effects. I then dragged them over to the sound board and placed them randomly. I also chose a heartbeat to play throughout.

Skills Audit Soundtrack

At first it looked difficult to use this programme but the only tabs that i used was the search tab which consisted of the music clips which i then dragged to the sound board where my final music track would be.

I was able to change the length of time. For example i changed some to be shorter and some to be longer.

I was also able to choose from a range of sounds from the search tab that gave me a variety to pick. By listening to different sounds it gave me a clear idea of what i wanted to include in my sound track.

After I dragged everything i needed, I played it over and over it again to improve and produce a smooth soundtrack.

Skills audit: Live Type and Sound

SOUNDTRACK PRO:
I learnt various things after first using Soundtrack pro which i felt would be very useful for when we begin to create our actual Thriller opening. The first thing that we learnt how to use was the search tab, from this we entered the different sounds which are in files such as Genre files, Instrument files, sound effect files and more. Once i found a sound i wanted to place on the sound board i dragged the file for example Digital Piano loop 52. Once i gathered enough sounds on the soundboard i could listen to it all together as one collective sound.

When i first began to use Livetype i found it quite interesting but hard to maneuver, after my teacher taught me how to type in what i wanted to be said and change fonts and effects i found it much easier and created a practice title with a large uppercase font as i saw in the opening for the film Se7en and thought it would be a good way of displaying titles. I learned how to drag the titles created onto the time line and shorten or extend for however long i want it to be played for. I thought that for a opening sequence only up to 3 seconds they should be shown each.

Match Cut preliminary

Analysis of the Clip Collateral;

This film is an action-thriller, With main character Vincent wearing sunglasses this mese en sene and in smart clothes, we get a sence of importance from this character, and a serious mood is set straight away for this film.





The scene is set in what seems a aiport terminal, surrounded by people, helping us to set the scene and gives us a clue to what the film will be based on. With a busy area, alot of nose and commotion happens in the opening titles, creating a sense of action to this thriller. This helps us think something big will happen with all the buisyness and through out the loudness we stil hear his footsteps wich go at a slow pace, wich shows he will diffenetly by the centre of this supsense for the rest of the film.

How Did the film United 93, create suspense?

United 93, is a film based on true events relating to the famous 9/11 terrorists attacks in America, this films helps us to understand what actually happend on the high-jacked planes.


The film's suspense is shown obviously by building up the panic of a specific flight (United 93) and leaving the audience unknown to what will happen, and when!





As a pollitical thriller, the terrorists talk in arobic, and quote the Qur'an in their dialogue. With some words not being subtittled, it does give a sence of mystery. This language not being farmiliar makes it seem alot more suspicous, all suspected terrorists speak in a hushed tone in the lead up to the major events in the film. This makes them seem very suspicious.





Before the four main terrorists board the plane, the scene is made shorter with extreme close ups and scenes of them all calling their loved ones to tell them they love thim, this helps the audience to figure out whats going to happen.





Another way the director shows supsense, is the cross cut shots between control room, and the focussed plane, we hear in the control room that several planes crash, but we are kept in suspense not knowing if its the United 93 plane that has crashed. This mystery helped to keep us glued to the film, and a sense of panic to what is going to happen next.





The highest point of suspense for me, whilst i watched the film, was when the passangers on the plane decide to take action against the terrorist. A huge free frall of violence, blood and shouting happening so fast with hand held camera and creates a great deal of drama. We are kept in supsense into the final scene were we are not sure if the passangers will take over and survive. Until the end of the clip we realise that the plane crashed, and like true events...no one survived.





Over all the film creates great suspense considering its based on a true story and nearly everyone knows how its going to end, but we cant seem to want to watch it through till the end.

News and current affairs events.

1.

Tesco shopper, 24, forced to show ID... because she was 'too young to buy a slice of QUICHE.'

Usually the only thing you need to eat quiche is a hearty appetite but according to Tesco you should be over 21 too.

I found this article on the Daily Mail website and although i found it relatively amusing at first, i later began to realise the potential the humerus, light hearted article has to be transformed into a gripping Thriller Film.
My main idea's for this article was to change it into a Supernatural Thriller of which the lady attempting to buy the Quiche goes insane. In the Thriller, the woman will have a power which stops her from ever aging and so always remains looking in her late teens. Though, this power of youth she possesses only lasts if she makes sure to always do one thing. Eat quiche. This had never been a problem until this very minute in time, when for the first time she can see her demise. When the woman is unable to be served her quiche anywhere she begins to go insane and parts body of her slowly start to decay. She realises a alternative source needs to be found soon for her to survive. She begins to try anything that could possibly keep her alive. She doesn't care what the solution may be, at any cost she will live, even if it means killing others...

I feel that this type of plot for a Supernatural Thriller is very apt as it gives the audience everything they could ask for; suspense-- will she find a alternative to the quiche before she dies? and at whose cost will it be at? it also gives the supernatural feel and to start with a sense of escapism as it seems the woman is living the good life, being a 46 year old woman who never looks a day older than 18. I think that if this article was to be changed into a Thriller film it would engage the audience in many ways and captivate their attention to a type of Thriller that has never been done before.


2.
'I saw my blood in the water': teenage girl's amazing escape after fighting off shark with her bodyboard
In this article i found in The Daily Mirror online, i found that this 14 year old girl Lydia Ward fought off a shark which had her in his jaws. Lydia was at the time just casually treading water when she stepped on something she realised was 'living'. If it was not for the fact she remembered about hitting sharks on the nose, she may have suffered much more injury than a puncture in her thigh.


My idea i had for changing this story into a Thriller would be to shoot a film all leading up the the events of which the girl has to fight this shark, will she survive or not? This thriller would have much anticipation throughout creating much needed suspense. This will be done by making the audience aware of the shark in the water as the girl gets ever nearing without realising what will happen, or even the fact this shark is anywhere near her. This will be an effective way to help the audience engage in the film and stay interested during the entire film, with the wondering 'when will it attack?'.
The sound that will be heard mostly in the film will just be normal sounds that are heard on full, average beaches; children playing, people talking, birds and general sounds. However when the shark is being seen by the audience the noises from the beach will dwindle to a quiter volume and a beat symbolising a heart beat will be heard.

Thriller Sub-genres

Different Genres of Thrillers:

• psychological
• Sci-Fi
• Spy
• Horror
• Comedy
• Romantic
• political
• religious
• Fictional/Factual

The ones that inspire me most out of the ones i have listed would be; Horror-thriller as i feel they would work well together in a movie. The suspense of a thriller mixed with the deep gore of a horror would balance out the great atmosphere.

News and current affairs events:

From 'The Sun' I found a story about - Mother Fiona who 'Suffocated her two toddlers'

It's about the mother strangling her two toddlers to death and putting them in sports bag in her car boot. She then walks into the police station and tells the police that she had killed her children. Clearly she had a psychological problem.

How this can be put into a thriller:

- Film a car that is driving madly across a road to present the woman's mental problems

- Can have props such as a black sports bag and have half of it open showing a dead baby(fake)

- Have a woman looking really crazy saying 'i killed my babies'

News And Current Affairs Events:

Man pleads Guilty of Chopping up a man's body parts and spreading them around Hertfordshire!

A Real Life Jigsaw Killer!!

I found this story on the www.bbc.co.uk/news website, i found it ideal to base a thriller on as it contained murder and gory details.

I would use this information in my Thriller by ellaborating on the detail of how he killed his victim. The background of his crime would help create quite a long story, and even use mystery and twists.