Lighting

I have a few ideas for lighting. i think that we need to organise a meeting at Jess's house and experiment with different lighting. For example do not stand in the first place we go to move around and see how the outcome alters. We could experiment with many techniques;

• Flash
• Move around
• Use different lights (dimmer, lamps etc)
• different times of the day

For our opening we decided on doing it in the dark because it makes the atmosphere more scary.

Location

Our location is going to be set in Jess's mums bedroom and then Jess's bedroom and also an establishing shot of Newport high street.

Props

We are going to have a lot of props used in our opening scene;

• Lipstick
• Mascara
• Towel
• bed
• Mirror
• phone
• perfume
• gun
• hair clip

Costume

Costume plays a very important part in our film. We have three characters which is the wife, husband and the prositute. We decided on having the husband dressed smartly in a suit;



The wife; Very clean looking (well done up). Wearing black or red clothes e.g a dress, high waisted skirt. Then for her to have long dark hair with bright red lipstick.



The prostitute; Tarty clothes such as corsets, suspenders and high heels. Then her hair to be a bit greasy with lots of make up.

Pitch ideas

I was doing some research on pitch ideas today so i looked through a few other thriller films pitches.

Inception
In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job till date, Inception.

The dark knight
Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent are forced to deal with the chaos unleashed by an anarchist mastermind known only as the Joker, as it drives each of them to their limits.

Black swan
A thriller that zeros in on the relationship between a veteran ballet dancer and a rival.

Elite squad 2
The Brazilian most popular cinema character since "Retomada" comes back to screens. Now more mature...

These are just a few examples that i was looking for to seeif i could get any good ideas. i have noticed that they do not let much information be told it leaves you on a cliff hanger which i think is a good effect.

Final opening sequence

Today in lesson we decided to finish our opening sequence plan. This is the final plan;

1. Starts off with them in the bedroom

2. She goes for a shower leaving him in bed

3. Then focus on certain aspects of her body

4. starting with focusing on her legs when she steps out the shower and the towel dropping

5. Then the camera moves up and zooms in on parts of her body

• Pulling up her stockings
• Her bright red lip stick
• Spraying her perfume
• Hair being let loose
• Tear drops but wiping them away in anger

6. He comes in and hugs her behind

7. When he turns see anger on her face

8. He walks off

9. She pulls open her draw

10. A gun is laying there

Costume

We have decided on having two actors in our opening scene. We have also decided that she will be wearing stockings, dress and red lipstick. In my opinion i think that she should be in black. Our male character should look as if he has been in bed to show that they have slept together.

Open and closed narrative

We looked at open and closed narrative. An open narrative is when a film could go different ways and when watching it not knowing what is going to happen. A closed narrative is knowing what is going to happen a good example of this is a working title because most of the time it ends with a happy ending. For our opening scene i think that open narrative would be better because it leaves people wanting more and builds suspense.

Enigma code

In today's lesson we looked at a few techniques that we could add in to our film to build an atmosphere. We looked at enigma code, this is when the producer purposely adds things into a film to get people questioning and wondering. There a few good examples of this in the film seven;

When the audience look at this the questions start because they would wonder firstly who he is, secondly who are the pictures of and thirdly why has someone got them.

Having writing in the shot makes you wonder who wrote it, why have they written it and builds suspense because someone is either in trouble, needs help etc.

Showing props wants you to know if they are going to kill someone etc. This helps build tension because you don't have a clue who is going to be killed.

Having a clip shot of a helicopter with police written on it makes you wonder why they are involved.

I think this is really good for a thriller film because thriller is very much to do with investigation. By making people question firstly will make them want to watch the whole film and secondly will make it more interesting because they will try to add it all up but will not be able to work out what is going on properly.

Jelly baby Thriller film

In todays lesson we got given some jelly babies to do a a thriller film. We had to use props in the classroom to improvise. This helped me to understand angles and ideas for our real thriller film because it is much easier to move around sweets. We tried out different camera techniques to see which ones worked best. Our storyline was about police chasing and on the look out for a man who is trying to kill someone. When they find him he has pushed the man off the cliff then kleading to the police and the criminal having a fight and the criminal falling off a cliff as well. It was a quick story that we thought of and we chose this one because ahving cliffs made it more interesting for the camera angles.

Ideas for opening scene

In our last lesson we discussed and did a diagram on the board of ideas for our opening scene for out thriller film. We decided that we were defiantly going to use a woman as the main character and make her seem more powerful. We discussed that she should have a sexy attitude but very mysterious. In my opinion i think that we should carry out our idea of having a lot of camera angles and techniques shown. One of our ideas was to start of seeing a towel drop and after see things such as stockings going up, bright red lipstick being put on etc then at the end show her holding a gun,shooting it then the screen go black for the film name.

 I think this is the look we should go for which is very powerful by her facial expression with bright red lips.

Thriller Opening

For our opening of a thriller, we have decided that our main character is going to be female. This will make our opening different to others because normally, the lead character is male. We will use the fact that she is female to our advantage by introducing hints of sexiness that maybe she could use throughout the scene in order to draw in the audience. Our target audience that we are aiming at is for young woman and men, but by targeting women we will have to be very careful with our advertisement as i we make it appear to feminine then some men will not want to view it.  We have used the recently opened film "The Tourist"'s main character Angelina Jolie as a guideline to what we want our main character to appear like.  We have decided on the location in which we are going to film and also on the actors. We have a rough idea for the order of the scenes and what is going to take place in each one.

Creation of Shh...production Facebook Page

I have created a Facebook page for our production company Shh...productions. This will enable our company to post questionnaires for research and to gain results effectively from the public. Using a social networking site such as Facebook will also help to promote our company and once completed our opening of a thriller film. By creating a group page on Facebook, we are able to contact our target audience. By posting our ways of audience research methods onto a social networking site, it will promote the questionnaires or whichever way we choose to research and will hopefully be completed by members of our target audience.

Location for Premliniary Task

For our premliniary task, we have decided to encorporate the theme of thillers into it as for our final piece we are making an opening scene for Thrillers.

Some locations i thought of using for our premliniary task are an old warehouse which is quite dark and gives the sense of a scary atmosphere. In our premliniary task we have to include someone opening the door and then somone entering a room, therefore another location that we could use could be a very dark room in someones house. This could also create a scary atmosphere.

Preliminary

For our preliminary task i have thought of a few ideas. I was thinking of trying to add in quite alot techniques so then when we do our thriller opening we have had a lot of practice with them areas. I think when the person walks into the classroom we should add a prop in such as a gun and then hae a close up of that and then zoom out to see that there are a few people in the classroom. Also maybe add some music to it so when they are walking in and seeing them talk etc have calming music then when you see the prop change the music.

Titles

I was having a look at some thriller opening credits and looking at the layout and the way they have done them. Firstly i think the best way of doing them is to have them running as our opening is being played. Secondly i thought that having the titles set on the bottom, top or in a corner would be best as the opening is important so we would not want them to disrupt it. Thirdly i think that having them being played fast would add excitement but having them coming up slowly would build tension. We also need to decide whether the names come up on there own or all together.

 This one is a good example because you can see them clearly but also see them film.

 I feel like this one takes the attention from the film on to this.

Research Task For Mr Norman

One of the opening scenes i watched for this research task was The Usual Suspects.

This is an opening scene from a very popular thriller film. The establishing shot for this scene is fire, this immediately gives the viewer an impression of danger which is associated with thriller films. Within editing they have made the shot when he is lighting the fire it is in slow motion, this adds tension to the shot and makes the viewer want to see more. The cutting rate in this clip speed up when the explosion is happening, this technique is commonly used in thriller films to increase suspense. Throughout this clip, there is a musical score being played. It is a very low key song which is constantly being played in the background to create an atmosphere.

The picture above is taken from the opening scene of The Usual Suspects, the shot used here is a reaction shot. The viewer can see the main character looking up and this makes them want to see what he is looking at, however we never see what he is looking at which adds tension.





Fonts for opening credits

I have been thinking about what sort of fonts to use for our Thriller opening credits. I feel that instead of a basic font such as Ariel etc i think we should have a different sort of writing. The fonts that you can not read very well i think would be very effective as it adds to the mystery which that is the theme we are aiming for. So these are a few different ideas that we could look at and agree on.

Order

• Produced by
• actors
• Casting by
• Music by
• Production designer
• Costume designed by
• Film editor
• Director of photography
• Producer
• Written by
• Directed by
• Name of film



Script for Preliminary Task

We have decided to create a small script for our preliminary task. We are planning to film for approximately a minute, as within this time we can include all the necessary aspects. The theme for our preliminary task is thriller as for our coursework we are making a opening scene of a thriller.


Script;

Person A - 'What happened to us last night'
Person B - 'I don't remember i think i blacked out'
Person A - "OHHHHHHH, i wish i know what happened'
Person B - 'Guess we'll never know'

This is a very short piece of dialogue, which leaves the viewer wanting to know more.

The location we have decided on is in a classroom.

Preliminary Task- Shh...productions

For our preliminary task, we have watched a few examples on youtube of other students also completing the as media coursework. We have figured out that many students use the matched action shot when opening the door and entering the room. For added effect we decided to use a zoom shot on the persons had when opening the door.

Below is an example of as media students completing the preliminary task.



When the two people are talking we have decided to stick to the 180 degrees rule, which will give viewers the perspective of both characters talking. We have decided to create the script for the dialogue between two characters. For when they are talking we are going to use an over the shoulder shot, this will enable the viewers to see the same point of view as the actors.

Print screen

Today we have learnt how to take pictures of the screen, using cmd, shift and the number 4 key. This will help us in further blogs when we are proving evidence of our ideas and research.

Vertigo

Techniques to build tension, mystery, excitement

My favourite technique that we could use is tracking. Many thrillers have a chasing scene to add suspense and it is always very effective. A good example of this would be in the film Da Vinci Code when he is running through the gallery because it is showing he is rushing away from something and trying to get away very fast. They also add a few effects to this by adding his panting which shows he  may be panicking. Also they show a shadow from a low angle to make the person chasing seem bigger and scarier.


Motivated cut builds suspense and makes you want to see what they are seeing or the main interesting part. By doing this makes them carry on watching because they have had either a quick peak or maybe can tell from the persons facial expression that something more interesting is happening at the same time. A good example of this is in Silence Of The Lambs. This happens she is in the office and you know there is something wrong by how she has got rushed into the office and how she is looking at the wall. This builds frustration because you want to know what she is looking at but it does not show you for a while.


By having cross cutting makes an big effect on the film. Cross cutting is when they change from one scene to another to show two things are happening at the same time. This can make different effects for different types of films. I feel for a Thriller this can make a big effect for suspense. For example in Da Vinci Code when the old man is dying on the floor from being shot a presentation is happening at the same time and them people seem to be linked to him. When analysing this i found that they could have done this to show that he is dying on his own because everyone else is busy and nobody knows he is there and no one would know who killed him.


Another technique that i think would be very effective to make our opening dramatic could be slow motion. I feel that this really makes you sit on the edge of your seat and makes you just want to know what is happening but by delaying it causes suspense. I feel suspense is the best way to make someone want to watch on. A good example of when this happens is in Usual Suspects when he drops his cigarette on the floor.


Another technique that could be used which is often used is zooming in or having a close up on something that is important. For example zooming in on a facial expression. A good example from a film is from Usual suspects when he wakes up and sees the man looking over him by seeing his face normally tells it all.


Handheld camera is another camera technique that i would really like to use. I feel this because i really think it shows somebody is watching. For example in Da vinci code i noticed that there was a camera behind him and as it was shaky you could tell it was handheld. This creates tension because you can not tell who it is but can tell somebody is there.


One other main technique i would like to use would be when they make something look out of focus.  For example in Da Vinci Code when the man turns around his face is all blurring and you can not identify him which makes you worry  who it is.


Another technique for a thriller film could be the framing as part of camera. Shot framing could be used to hide certain information from the audience such as in Usual Suspects when they have a shot of the man sitting on the floor but only half of the man standing up missing out his face. This builders mystery because you want to know who he is.


All thriller films have to have a good setting to make it seem creepy. For example in The da Vinci Code it is set t night which adds a scary atmosphere as you may not be able to see everything clearly or it is quiet at night.


Lighting which is m.e.s  adds effects for a thriller film also. By having no lighting adds an atmosphere as you can not see clearly or using different types of lighting adds different effects. A god example of this is in Da Vinci Code when he is running through the gallery with a Shadow following him. By having a little bit of light makes the shadow appear which is good for tension because you do not know who is coming but can see them moving quickly.


Music i think is the best effect to make a thriller movie have mystery , tension and excitement. Music can be played very differently for certain times. In thrillers music usually changes when building up to something and when something is happening. For example in Da Vinci Code  when the shadow gets closer and closer to the man running the music changes  from slow moving to and instrument coming gradually in and singers singing in a different language and getting higher. This is a good effect because the music seems to get busier and higher which creates intensity and having somebody using in a different language add mystery because you do not know what they are saying.


Adding props into a scene will build tension and excitement to. A good example of this is in Silence of the lambs when a gun is in the shot. By having a gun shows something bad might happen and adds mystery to who is going to get shot. 

Different camera Techniques

I have been exploring  different techniques that we could implicate into our thriller opening. Camera techniques are very important because it creates atmosphere,suspense and much more. I think that we should look at techniques that are usually used, as from my own knowledge these techniques really make the film but also as i think we should be unique so maybe add in a few of our own that we like. Also by adding different editing techniques, sounds and m.e.s to build tension, suspense, excitement.

Conventions

Close ups

A close up is close shot of an object or person. They are used regualry in films due to showing a lot of detail although they do not show a lot of the scene. Zooming is a way to get to a close up and away from one. They are used regulary to show an expression, emotions and feelings. It is also a way of showing important and relevance of a character in a film. They are not usually done with wide angle lenses as this does not give the best effect.



Establishing shot

It is a shot that establishes the scene. It is normally a wide, long shot at the beginning of a new scene or a reminder. Sometimes it may show a significant, famous place for example statue of liberty which would show the audience it is taking place in New york. It normally takes place for a couple of seconds but maybe at the beginning of a film a bit longer.
^[


High angle shot

A high angle shot  usually starts from your eye level. It is when the camera looks down at something. They use this for a few reasons. Firstly it might be showing level of importance. For example if there was a film with a monster it would show a shot of the monster looking down on whatever he was killing, although this could be showed in level of education, age etc.



Low angle shot

This is a shot below eye level. It is when the camera is looking up at something. This is also a way to show level of important but this time them being not as important looking up at something more important. Another reason would be to show the height of something.



Two shot

This is a frame that makes a view of two people. It shows reactions between people.



Tracking shot

It is sometimes when a camera is put on a camera dolly which is pushed on rails when something is moving.

• Aerial shot- Shot from air
• Point-of-view shot- A shot from someones point of view
• Over the shoulder shot- From someones shoulder
• Canted angle- At an angle
• Pan- When it films across horizontally
• Tilt- Vertical
• Track- Moving along following something
• Crane- Camera on a crane
• Steadicam- On a device to keep steady
• Hand-held- Held in the hand
• Zoom- Closer
• Reverse zoom- To zoom out
• Shot/reverse shot- Back and fourth between characters
• Jump cut- Miss out bits of footage
• Crosscutting- Flickers from one screen to another
• Short take- A short take
• Cutting rate- Lots of short takes
• Motivated cut- Cut to see what someone is looking at
• Slow motion- Slowing down
• Sound bridge- When two scenes are linked through music
• Voiceover- Someone is talking over
• Ambient sound- To create atmosphere, sounds in the background
• Score- Musical theme tune
• Reaction shot- Shot focusing on reactions
• Diegetic sound- Something that we can see
• Non-diagetic sound- Something they add later

Research on setting

I have been doing some research into some more opening scenes for our thriller film. I looked at a few different films which had very different settings so i thought of places that are typically scary. The ideas that i thought of were castles, dungeons, attics, basements, underground, coffin and also a forest although i do feel this is used to much. I was also thinking of maybe having a different style to other thriller films and have it set in somewhere you would never think of such as in middle of a city in the day etc.

Audience Research

For our audience research we have designed and created a questionnaire, asking people views on thriller films. As we are trying to create the opening of a thriller starring a woman as the main character, we asked the public what they thought of this idea.

Below is the link for the questionnaire:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/MySurvey_EditorFull.aspx?sm=Z2AL6jCkcNyTnMAZvLdBPoSUucP5kV%2fbz%2fm%2b8heheKA%3d

Welcome to our blog

We have created a blog to record our work throughout our AS media course. 


We have designed and created a niche production company which will produce the opening credits of a Thriller film. Our production company is called Shh...productions and appeals to a niche market audience. Shh...productions produces independent films. 


Shh...productions is aimed at a more female audience. Our background research into Thrillers, showed us that the main characters in this genre of film tended to be males. As the creators of a female based company we are looking to bring a feminine influence into the male dominated tradition of thriller films. 


We expect to work with companies such as Optimum Releasing. This production company is due to release a thriller starring a strong female character Angelina Jolie. The release date for 'The Tourist" is 10th December. We chose this company to produce our film as they have previously released thriller films and the most recent is starring a women as the main character which is a similar idea to ours.