Candidate 1: Nicole Anderton
What did you think of the film?
"It was good because i didn't know what was going to happen next"
What would You rate it out of 10 ?
"Well, I'd rate it 8 out of 10"
What did You like the most?
"I liked it when the stalker was crossing out and circling the victim"
What could be improved, do you think?
Peraps, more voice overs could be implie, like "screams" etc
Canditate 2: Souhaib Kahn
What did you think of the film?
" I thought it was good, because oof the suspense it was creating"
What would you rate it out of 10?
"I'd rate it 7 out of 10"
What did You like the most?
"I liked it when the victim was picking the phone up at the end, i thought it was a strong end focus.
What could be improved, do you think?
Perhaps the sound perspective, like i'd be better if it often went dead loud and low sometimes.
candidat 3: Kash Khimji
What did you think of the film?
"I liked very much, i thought it was realy creative and entertaining"
What would you rate it out of 10 ?
"I'd rate it 7 out of 10"
What did you like the most?
"I liked the mise en cene, in other words where the whole thing thing was set"
What could be improved, do you think?
Perhaps, the shots because there was a lot of wide shots. Perhaps more close up shots would
of made it better
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Monday, 10 May 2010
Research & Planning
WHAT THE STORY WAS BASED ON AND WHERE IT WAS SET
Out first idea as a group, we first came up with the idea of making a film where an innocent boy was pinned for murderer as he was found looking a t a dead body in a park alone by a young female as she was walking through the park to get to school. As the pinned murderer tries to justify his innocence the girl starts to run. We chose to go to Alexander Park, as we found it to be a lot quiet and suitable for us to be filming our product.
WHY WE USED THE PARTICULAR MISE EN SCENE
At that point we used the mise en scene through the costume of our two actors. The supposing murder was supposing to be wearing black, as it’s the appropriate colour we manage to associate a murderer with, and also supporting the stereo typing of our young male teenagers who are mostly seen as dangerous figures by today’s society. We used juxtaposition between the two characters as our female character was much more simply dressed, as she was wearing blue jeans a white top and a black leather jacket. We chose to dress our character this way as we believe the bright clothes would present her as a much more weaker, fragile and innocent character.
WHAT WE CHANGED AND KEPT FROM OUR FIRST PRODUCT
We came use shots such as close ups to show the characters emotions. Long shots were also displayed as the two characters were walking towards the tragedy. We used the tracking shot in the running scene to show the distance of the two runners. The Hand-held camera shot was also used in order to crate realism and to visualise the scene as the character did. We also used an establishing shot at the start, to reveal where the event was all happening. The editing of our, first product involved Matched cuts, of the two characters walking, to show how they ended up meeting each other. As the female character was running we also used cutting rate to show the how the character being chased blinked fast a she was getting chased.
WHAT CHANGED OUR MINDS ABOUT OUR FIRST PRODUCT
What changed our mind was mainly the idea that our storyline gave too much information and clues of what was happening. What we were really trying to get across is to match our product to something that would connote gloom and which would eventually create a disturbing atmosphere, matching the genre of our product. However, there were many things in our first product that immobilized us to make what we really wanted. The lighting wasn’t dark enough, the camera shots taken, displayed and revealed everything, and it contained too much actions, which was really hard for our female character to do, since sometimes it involved reproduction when we got several things wrong.
The fact that we also had to shoot the scenes in the park was one of the reasons we considered to change our mind about our first product, as this meant that we had to go to the park each time we wanted to add something new.
WHAT TECHNIQUES WE USED TO DIFFER THE PRESENT PRODUCTS TO THE PREVIOUS ONE
The present story line is a lot different to the present in many ways. The present story line is about a male stalker whose aim is to maltreat a young girl. The stalker eventually does catch the young female character but we keep the audience unclear about the whole situation by first of all not showing who the stalker is and also not showing what he does to the girl. We chose to do it this way as it creates a lot more suspense which is what we wanted to do in the first place. What the main techniques used in our present product is, the use of:
• different angle shot such as over the shoulder, while the killer was marking the girl’s face on the board
• the dark lighting to evoke danger
• mise en scene of black costume for the stalker
• Mid shot as the stalker is staring at the board without moving
• Non- diegetic sound of incidental music
• Non- diegetic sound of the narrative speaking
• Bright lightning when the victim is being shown walking
• The editing of the sepia colour when the close up shot focuses on the victim’s face as she has been marked by the stalker etc
• Flicker effect of the board, to raise a hazard tension.
• Use of phone as a key prop
WHAT WE CHANGED AND KEPT FROM OUR FIRST PRODUCT
The idea of the storyline was the main thing changed in our product, which allowed us to consider changing where the whole thing was going to get filmed, how it was going to get filmed, and how we’re going to edit it to make it like what we were really after. However, we used several stuff from the previous filming to help us achieve what we’ve got. We kept the running scene, but erasing the parts where the parts where the suspects face is revealed. We also used the footsteps of that particular running scene as we found it that was important to create realism, as it elevates a creepy atmosphere.
WHAT THE STORY WAS BASED ON AND WHERE IT WAS SET
Out first idea as a group, we first came up with the idea of making a film where an innocent boy was pinned for murderer as he was found looking a t a dead body in a park alone by a young female as she was walking through the park to get to school. As the pinned murderer tries to justify his innocence the girl starts to run. We chose to go to Alexander Park, as we found it to be a lot quiet and suitable for us to be filming our product.
WHY WE USED THE PARTICULAR MISE EN SCENE
At that point we used the mise en scene through the costume of our two actors. The supposing murder was supposing to be wearing black, as it’s the appropriate colour we manage to associate a murderer with, and also supporting the stereo typing of our young male teenagers who are mostly seen as dangerous figures by today’s society. We used juxtaposition between the two characters as our female character was much more simply dressed, as she was wearing blue jeans a white top and a black leather jacket. We chose to dress our character this way as we believe the bright clothes would present her as a much more weaker, fragile and innocent character.
WHAT WE CHANGED AND KEPT FROM OUR FIRST PRODUCT
We came use shots such as close ups to show the characters emotions. Long shots were also displayed as the two characters were walking towards the tragedy. We used the tracking shot in the running scene to show the distance of the two runners. The Hand-held camera shot was also used in order to crate realism and to visualise the scene as the character did. We also used an establishing shot at the start, to reveal where the event was all happening. The editing of our, first product involved Matched cuts, of the two characters walking, to show how they ended up meeting each other. As the female character was running we also used cutting rate to show the how the character being chased blinked fast a she was getting chased.
WHAT CHANGED OUR MINDS ABOUT OUR FIRST PRODUCT
What changed our mind was mainly the idea that our storyline gave too much information and clues of what was happening. What we were really trying to get across is to match our product to something that would connote gloom and which would eventually create a disturbing atmosphere, matching the genre of our product. However, there were many things in our first product that immobilized us to make what we really wanted. The lighting wasn’t dark enough, the camera shots taken, displayed and revealed everything, and it contained too much actions, which was really hard for our female character to do, since sometimes it involved reproduction when we got several things wrong.
The fact that we also had to shoot the scenes in the park was one of the reasons we considered to change our mind about our first product, as this meant that we had to go to the park each time we wanted to add something new.
WHAT TECHNIQUES WE USED TO DIFFER THE PRESENT PRODUCTS TO THE PREVIOUS ONE
The present story line is a lot different to the present in many ways. The present story line is about a male stalker whose aim is to maltreat a young girl. The stalker eventually does catch the young female character but we keep the audience unclear about the whole situation by first of all not showing who the stalker is and also not showing what he does to the girl. We chose to do it this way as it creates a lot more suspense which is what we wanted to do in the first place. What the main techniques used in our present product is, the use of:
• different angle shot such as over the shoulder, while the killer was marking the girl’s face on the board
• the dark lighting to evoke danger
• mise en scene of black costume for the stalker
• Mid shot as the stalker is staring at the board without moving
• Non- diegetic sound of incidental music
• Non- diegetic sound of the narrative speaking
• Bright lightning when the victim is being shown walking
• The editing of the sepia colour when the close up shot focuses on the victim’s face as she has been marked by the stalker etc
• Flicker effect of the board, to raise a hazard tension.
• Use of phone as a key prop
WHAT WE CHANGED AND KEPT FROM OUR FIRST PRODUCT
The idea of the storyline was the main thing changed in our product, which allowed us to consider changing where the whole thing was going to get filmed, how it was going to get filmed, and how we’re going to edit it to make it like what we were really after. However, we used several stuff from the previous filming to help us achieve what we’ve got. We kept the running scene, but erasing the parts where the parts where the suspects face is revealed. We also used the footsteps of that particular running scene as we found it that was important to create realism, as it elevates a creepy atmosphere.
Sunday, 9 May 2010
Shots From Opening Sequence
We have used this shot to create the effect of the victim, this only shows her back so it gives a sense of mystery and suspense on who the victim is. The wide shot used, allows the audience to see the location of where the victim is located.
This shot is used to show how the "stalker" is stalking the victim. In front of him we can see all of the pictures that he/she is using.The wide shot, helps to create tension as the audience has no idea who this person is and what they are doing.
The long shot of the victim walking, defines the victime's full physical appearance. This allows the audience to see the juxtapositioning between the female victim and the male stalker, as they are both physically dissimilar.
This shot shows the victim up close and what she looks like. It is a close up shot showing the victim's innocent facial expression, settling the idea that the victim is totally unaware she is being secretly watched.
This shot shows how the victim's mum is ringing to see if she is okay, this shot is a close up of the phone it gives the suspense whether the phone is going to get answered by someone or not.
This shot is an over the shoulder shot and it shows how the killer is answering the phone, it also shows his surrounding, this gives the audience an idea where he could be.
The hand held shot, gives the impression of turbulence and unsettlement, as it is taken when the victim is running away from the stalker. The fact that it show the loccation which is in the woods, also creates tention along with the shot used. 
This shot is an point of view (over the shoulder). Itallows the audience to see what the killer can see around him. the shot is used to create suspense,
as the audience does not really know what is going on.
This is a screen shot of our finished final cut pro production, revealing everything we have included in our task.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt from the progression from it to the full task?
Progression from the preliminary task to the main task has taught all of us how to work at the best of our abilities. For the preliminary task we where told that ‘’we needed to show a person going through a door, and show a close up of the door. We where told that we needed to include a shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We where also told that out film should only be 30seconds long.’’ The main task we where asked to ‘’create an opening sequence which is to last a maximum of two minutes.’’ The prelim task helped us to be better at our main task as we had to think about target audience before getting started, had to made some researches, taught us to be able to discuss as a group and come up with ideas as a group. In the prelim task we tried to do too much which wasn’t possible and so therefore it helped us to keep things simple but also effective at the same time. Showed us the importance of planning as some of the ideas which we come up with where impossible to do. Prelim task helped us to make sure that we thought about how we wanted our characters to be like and why and how they can relate to our target audience.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
We learned several new stuff in which we didn’t really know at the beginning, involving filming editing etc as we mostly relied on our teachers. This product as helped us to get a lot more independent as each and every one of the members in this group has learned and took part in the editing, filming and even acting.
We experimented a lot in the earlier stages of editing, and now we have learnt to create certain effect, using pace to create suspense. We also learnt on final cat pro how to separate timelines which makes it easier to have different types of shots on different timelines therefore meaning that we can practice before actually putting in together into one piece. We also learnt how to add in sound and music into the timelines.
We did face some difficulties within our shots, such as static camera sound in shots, so we tried cutting it out using final cut pro. We also learnt how to adjust the focus on the camera at first we did struggle with this but we did manage to handle it at the end, showing that it’s very important to be able to handle your camera, knowing how it operates.
How did you attract/ address your audience?
What we did to attract our audience, was making sure the lighting was dark and sombre to raise a gloomy tension and making it hard for the audience to identify the unknown character. The use of the two lighting dark and bright was also used to juxtapose the two different types of characters involved in the scenes. We purposely used close up shots as the victim was being stalked, to show the innocent face of the victim, revealing her unawareness about the situation she was in.
We used themes through to production by using light verses dark in the lighting to attach the message of good verses evil. We used storyline twists by making sure that we did not let on what the motives where so therefore kept the audience guessing. We applied these twist through our production and post-production footage and editing, e.g. to create a sense of danger by the audience not being able to see the persons face, we used editing to create mystery, such as the use of sound, for example we used sound when the phone was ringing showing a close up on the phone. We where hoping that our audience like to be challenged when watching film, so therefore choose to watch this film as it doesn’t give away everything immediately.
We got some feedback from audiences and we did manage to attract them as they found it interesting because of the music and interesting camera angles, however we did get some negative feedback such as the lighting, so therefore if we where to do it again we would make sure that the lighting was much more interesting.
We used the over the shoulder shot as the unknown character was crossing out the pictures, to make the audience look at the scene from the character’s perspective, which sets a sad view to the audience as they can predict what is to come next. We also used a mysterious music to go along with the shady dark image in which we expect to draw and strange imagery on the reader’s mind. We chose the chosen characters, as we knew that the audience would be much more familiar with the suspect being a female as it would be the suitable gender to reach the audience’s compassion.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
We had to decide who we wanted our audience to be, we did some research into different types of audiences and what they like, for example teenagers like thrillers, horror and actions where as young children liked cartoons. We also considered into how age and gender can affect what audiences choose to watch, for example youths will tend to watch big blockbusters that are very modern with interesting effects such as ‘Iron Man’ or funny comedies such as ‘Night at the Museum’ where as elderly people are most likely to watch old classical films from their time, so therefore gender does affect what an audience chooses to watch.
Looking at gender for example girls are most likely to watch romantic comedies while boys may be more interested in watching action films. As our film is quite serious, our core audience is mostly students at the age of 15-25. Looking at gender our film is not really gender specific in its audience, and is most likely to be enjoyed by British audiences.
The people who would want to watch our film are most likely to be students as they will enjoy the complexities of the plot, reason why we are targeting students as our core target audience is because they are young and will enjoy the odd camera style, we hopefully appeal to the audience expectations we want them to try and piece together the story line
What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?
Our production company ‘simple production’ would make a low budget thriller to target a student audience interested in thriller. Type of media institution distributing any media production depends on what type of film you are creating. For example if you have created a large Hollywood block buster then it would be mainly shown in main cinemas like ‘Odeon’ in the UK
However for us since we created an independent film, it would be limited where we can show our film as ours is a low budget film and also depending on the film, our film is most likely to be shown in small independent cinemas. Or if we want we can put our film online in order to gain a large audience through the web, this would be the best way to target our target group online. Production companies such as Film4 have produced award winning British films such as ‘This is England’ produced in 2006, we think that film4 would be good to distribute our film and will be popular among a young audience. We also think that our film could be in film4 style production as it is a low budget British film because it doesn’t require huge special effects. 
For example we did some research on production company and we found out about Fox Searchlight Pictures, which is ‘’a film division of 20th Century Fox, established in 1994. It specialises in independent and British films, alongside dramedy and horror as well as non-English-language films, and is variously involved with the production and/or distribution of these films.’’ As it would be a low budget film. ‘The unkown’ could be promoted online through youtube also social networks such as facebook could be used to create pages and groups for film which therefore would lead to discussions about our film.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
We used the character conventions in thrillers, we had a tall dark guy wearing black who looked as a potential killer. He was in casual clothes which showed that he was probably working class. We also used a young white girl who looked innocent and is probably looks like she’s middle class by her make up and clothes that she is wearing, her clothes are not revealing, also you can tell that the character is middle class because she has a phone. We decided to represent age by having actors at between the ages 15-25 since our audience is young adults. Our media product represents a young social group, roughly aged between 15-25 years of age. The cast is made up of 17 to18 year olds, we wanted our audience to be able to relate with the actors. We were hoping that our age would strike a link with our intended audience and age group. The mise en scene also relates to the social group aimed at as the main character that is getting followed, was dressed according to the timeline. What settles the target audience through the mise en scene is also the gadget we use.
We used a mobile phone as it is a one of the most common, portable gadget used and carried everywhere by today’s young generation. The phone also rises a threatening atmosphere and creepiness as we use this device to show how the character is in danger, as she misses most of her mother’s miscalls. We used someone close and intimate like her mother, to create realism, assuring the deepness and seriousness of the situation being displayed in the storyline.
In term of gender, it is obvious that our product evokes a situation that is more likely to happen to the female audience, as it’s the gender presented powerless, however our main aim was to go beyond a specific audience in terms of, race ethnic group or social class and even gender to evoke that this sort of tragic situation can happen to anyone out there.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When we started to look at different film genres in preparation for starting our group piece, we looked at different film genres and the conventions of each of those genres. For example there was drama; using fast paced editing and lots of action to keep the audience enticed. Then we looked at thrillers and we focussed deeper on them, realising that this is what we wanted to choose for our own genre, so we did. The thriller shares many common conventions such as a dark environment with a main murderer or anonymous character, and a possible victim. Common themes of thriller are death, victims, as well as the conventions of the production such as worrying music, and editing or creating a story which itself creates and puzzle for the audience: leaving them guessing. An examples of this are thriller movies such as ‘Wanted’ as well as many others, and they hold back information until the end so that the audience are more intrigued and more scared. We fit to these conventions of the thriller genre by having the classic characters of a ‘victim girl’ and an ‘anonymous character ’, as well as using enigmas, by not showing the anonymous character, making audiences question themselves.
Another way we represented the genre of thriller is that we used the theme of stalking, which has been used is film such as ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ We also used chilling music. Conventions for our opening sequence included an introduction to the key character, sense of danger from the music, symbolic images and titles throughout the opening sequence. We used these convention, we introduced the anonymous character, introduced the young attractive victim, we also had titles and music throughout. The overall style of our piece is very strange, with close up camera work to show expressions of the characters.
Our media product uses developed forms and convention of real media product in many ways. As the genre of our film is a thriller, we considered to use several camerawork such as over the shoulder to raise the suspense of the murderer. Long shot was used as the murderer was stalking the victim. A close up shots was used as the victim was crossing and circling the next victim to convey the person’s appearance. At first we were going to use a black board, with pictures pined on it, with the killer marking of his victim. However, we came across a better idea which was to use the smart board instead. This gave us a flicker effect which added to the tension we were trying to create. In order to make the scenes seem a lot darker and appealing, we considered to use a non-diegetic sound to raise tension. The edited non- diegetic sound also allows the scene to look and sound much more nerve-racking, to achieve the viewers sympathy towards the victim. The diegetic sound of the victim speaking, is purposely set to do connote her vulnerability
Shooting Schedule
Tuesday 9th February
Today we started filming our main task, as we had just filmed the preliminary we were positive on what camera shots we were going to use, but due to the different ideas of the group there were set backs. We over come this by looking for our location and getting on with the task in hand, we had before this thought of a location and on this day we took pictures and tested out different camera shots.
Friday 12th February
Today we finally started filming after deciding that our location just wasn't right for what we had planed we had taken many shots which will be included in our main task as these shots were good enough to be blended in our task.
Tuesday 16th February
As we have changed our location we have had to take different shots of our location which we may include into our storyboard, this is a big improvement to our last location as we can now film shots freely and easily without anything drastic changes, in our film we have used the picture which we have took in our location which include the characters this give more of an insight to the film and helps the audience understand what may be happening.
Friday 19th February
This week we had to take a break from filming as we needed to update our blog
Tuesday 24th February
We have now started putting together our ideas, we have decided to do something different then the other groups and have used a smart board to help us, we have taken the shots for our scenes we now just need to add them to final cut pro.
Friday 27th February
We have uploaded our film on to final cut pro we will now edit. We have made some changes to what we will be editing, this will hopefully improve our task and help us. We have now finished filming and will now start to edit.
Today we started filming our main task, as we had just filmed the preliminary we were positive on what camera shots we were going to use, but due to the different ideas of the group there were set backs. We over come this by looking for our location and getting on with the task in hand, we had before this thought of a location and on this day we took pictures and tested out different camera shots.
Friday 12th February
Today we finally started filming after deciding that our location just wasn't right for what we had planed we had taken many shots which will be included in our main task as these shots were good enough to be blended in our task.
Tuesday 16th February
As we have changed our location we have had to take different shots of our location which we may include into our storyboard, this is a big improvement to our last location as we can now film shots freely and easily without anything drastic changes, in our film we have used the picture which we have took in our location which include the characters this give more of an insight to the film and helps the audience understand what may be happening.
Friday 19th February
This week we had to take a break from filming as we needed to update our blog
Tuesday 24th February
We have now started putting together our ideas, we have decided to do something different then the other groups and have used a smart board to help us, we have taken the shots for our scenes we now just need to add them to final cut pro.
Friday 27th February
We have uploaded our film on to final cut pro we will now edit. We have made some changes to what we will be editing, this will hopefully improve our task and help us. We have now finished filming and will now start to edit.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Props
The props we have used have had a big impact on our filming, we haven't used many props as we didn't think our film needed it, so all we have used is a smart board, this has been used to create the effect of the pictures on the board ans we thought it was easier to do this as we could use the pens to create the effect of a stalker. The other props we have used is a mobile phone we have used this to create the effect that the person in question has gone missing and her mum is worried.
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Deadline in 3weeks!
Today is the day where we going to finish filming our opening sequence. The rest of the group members when to finish filming the scene where the girl is walking around the park and it appears as if she is being followed during day light. Then after that we are going to start editing. Today we were sent an email telling us that we only have 3weeks till our deadline meaning that everything has to been done, all the filming, editing and our blog should be completed as well. So therefore this means that these coming weeks we are going to be working hard for us in order to finish our work and achieve a good enough grade.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Location Settings
We are going to film our opening in college, as we need a black background and we are going to use a black background in college. We will use props that are available to use for instance, maybe a lamp to help brighten up the scene but not so it’s not too light, we also need to find a place in which we can set the scene so we will look at different locations throughout college in which we could use and a place in which we could hang pictures up and shoot them. The location also needs to be quiet as not to get any noises which are unnessacary in our scene.
Research Into Films
The research we did into the films was watch openings of thrillers and other films to see if we could get any ideas, in class we looked at some different genres of films, we looked at bhaji on the beach and the unusual suspects, we also had to do other research into films which we did on youtube, we found some ideas in which we were thinking of using.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4bznTvfP6k - Shutter Island
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEZK7mJoPLY - Seven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTWf9QGdJCQ - Scream
These are some of the films we have watched trailers for to
get an idea of how we want to do for
our opening sequence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTWf9QGdJCQ - Scream
These are some of the films we have watched trailers for to
get an idea of how we want to do for
our opening sequence
Sunday, 4 April 2010
We started filming our main task
We start filming main task
We started filming our new idea ‘The Unknown’. During our lessen we filmed the scene where the female character was walking around and it appears as if she is being followed, when we finished filling the first scene we uploaded the video and we viewed it we realized that we had make some few mistakes e.g. speaking on the background while filming, having shaky camera work when not needed, so we decided to film it again. Paige had to wear certain clothes; we decided to make sure that she was holding a specific handbag as it has a meaning in our opening sequence, decided that we wanted the use of clothing/props to have a connotation of an attractive young female character. These are a few pictures we took of the scene.
Information about our Opening Sequence (Overview)
Name of opening sequence – ‘The Unknown'
Duration (run time) – ‘2 Minutes’
Duration (run time) – ‘2 Minutes’
Genre – ‘Thriller’
Film location- Dark room and College
Target audience: Our target audience would be people aged 16 and upwards as they would be the main people most likely to watch our thriller as they would find it most interesting. Our target audience would like this thriller as it is jumpy and would have unexpected twists. Audiences who are interested in thriller such as ‘Seven’ should be interested in this one.
Target audience: Our target audience would be people aged 16 and upwards as they would be the main people most likely to watch our thriller as they would find it most interesting. Our target audience would like this thriller as it is jumpy and would have unexpected twists. Audiences who are interested in thriller such as ‘Seven’ should be interested in this one.
Plot summary – Young attractive girl appears as if she is being followed but she doesn’t know it. Strange character is shown in a dark room full of mysterious pictures of young attractive girls. Some pictured crossed out. Later we see one of the girls’ handbag on the floor not knowing what has happened to the girl.
Possible elements to be used-
*Props
*Character- mysterious, bizarre gloomy clothing for outlandish character, young attractive female character in vibrant clothing
Cast
Paige Devonport
Nakeem Pereira
Nakeem Pereira
Amanda Makubo
What role camera shots play in a Film Noire Opening Scene ?
One of the main techniques that makes a successful thriller film is the use of complex camera shots at the start, first of all to gain attention of those who are watching, but also mostly to create suspense of the next coming scenes. A dramatic opening is what builds the noire and scary imagery on the watcher’s mind, therefore what happens is the camera takes shots, which connotes the genre of the film but gives less information about what the upcoming scenes are going to be about.
In our case, as a group we came up with a few ideas of what we might include as camera shots to emphasize the story line of our film noire.
main camera shots:
In our case, as a group we came up with a few ideas of what we might include as camera shots to emphasize the story line of our film noire.
main camera shots:
- Long Shots
- Extreme close up shot
- Close up shot
- Over the shoulder shot
- Tracking shot
Camera Shots
List of shots we will use in our scene
· Close Up
· Long Shot
· Side Shot
· Extreme Close Up
· Medium Shot
Storyboard
We started our storyboards which are graphic organizers such as a series of illustrations or images which are displayed in a sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture or animation. We use storyboards because they help us think ahead about what the idea is going to look like when it is completed, helped us to create direction and the structure of our plan, we found making the storyboard more smoothly and less stressful and also finally we use it as our plan.
Chosen Idea (Final Idea)
Final idea
We have decided to use our third narrative which is about a girl who is being watched why someone but the audience has no idea who, we came up with the idea whether there a strange character wearing black is in a dark room looking at pictures or two certain girls, one of the girls face has been crossed out, and the other there’s writing in near her picture saying next, we see that there is a lot of pictures of this particular girl. Later we see the girl walking about and it appears as if she is being followed. Since this is on opening thriller, we cannot tell the whole story to the audience as we want to keep them in suspense and wondering who this strange character wearing black is and what his plan is with these girls and why?.
We plan on using the camera in different angles to create suspense and tension. Using shaky camera work. We’ll also focus on the silence at the end of the sequence. We decided to use this idea as a possibility for a thriller opening because we thought that it would be popular with our target audience as it is a thriller and aimed at 16-25year olds. And also we won’t have a problem finding props for this, and also we have possible ideas for the location we want to use. We where inspired by the opening credits for the movie ‘Se7en’
Ideas for opening sequence
In our group we made up and discussed possible ideas that we could use as our opening thriller sequence, once we’d made detailed notes on each idea we then chose which idea we would develop and use as our opening thriller sequence. Examples of ideas we come up with are:
First Idea
We wanted the narrative to be set in a deserted place late at night. The narrative starts with our female protagonist who is running in the middle of the road during night time, we see that there is another protagonist who is fallowing this character but the protagonist’s face is not shown to keep the audience in suspense, later there’s a male dead body. We then end it showing the female protagonist’s bag.
Our group discussed doing this idea because it is an original plot, positive thing of us doing this idea would be that there aren’t a lot of props needed and it is pretty low production. A problem we may encounter if we did this though is that we’d have to find a place that’s extremely deserted so therefore just decided to use a park as a deserted place.
Our target audience would be people aged 16 and upwards as they would be the main people most likely to watch our thriller as they would find it most interesting. Our target audience would like this thriller as it is jumpy and would have unexpected twists if we were to film the whole thriller.
Second idea
The narrative of our second narrative is set in a school/house. The opening sequence starts with a news reporter opening with the news of a group of teenagers who are suddenly dying due to a phone call. The footage starts with a point of view shot of the school/house and a close up on a girls face then suddenly her phone rings but she misses the call and listens to her voice-mail, this is where the twist is, the voice-mail is herself, she is listening to herself dying, she then starts to panic, later we see her running and at this point to audience does not know whether someone is actually following her or what, shaky camera work is used to create tension. We discussed this idea as a possibility for a thriller opening because we thought that it would be popular with our target audience.
Films such as ‘One Missed Call’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ helped influence our idea and these films have been hugely popular with the audience we are trying to target.
We plan on using the camera in different angles to create suspense and tension. We’ll also focus on the silence at the end of the sequence when the antagonist has killed one of the protagonists. If we were to use this idea as our thriller opening we’d have to either film in college or someone’s house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1F7hJNsi5M
Final idea
The narrative of our third narrative is about a girl who is being watched why someone but the audience has no idea who, we came up with the idea whether there a strange character wearing black is in a dark room looking at pictures or two certain girls, one of the girls face has been crossed out, and the other there’s writing in near her picture saying next, we see that there is a lot of pictures of this particular girl. Later we see the girl walking about and it appears as if she is being followed. Since this is on opening thriller, we cannot tell the whole story to the audience as we want to keep them in suspense and wondering who this strange character wearing black is and what his plan is with these girls and why?.
We would have to find a location for this, for example find a dark room where we have pictures of the girls all over the black wall.
We also plan on using the camera in different angles to create suspense and tension. Using shaky camera work. We’ll also focus on the silence at the end of the sequence. We discussed this idea as a possibility for a thriller opening because we thought that it would be popular with our target audience as it is a thriller and aimed at 16-25year olds.
First Idea
We wanted the narrative to be set in a deserted place late at night. The narrative starts with our female protagonist who is running in the middle of the road during night time, we see that there is another protagonist who is fallowing this character but the protagonist’s face is not shown to keep the audience in suspense, later there’s a male dead body. We then end it showing the female protagonist’s bag.
Our group discussed doing this idea because it is an original plot, positive thing of us doing this idea would be that there aren’t a lot of props needed and it is pretty low production. A problem we may encounter if we did this though is that we’d have to find a place that’s extremely deserted so therefore just decided to use a park as a deserted place.
Our target audience would be people aged 16 and upwards as they would be the main people most likely to watch our thriller as they would find it most interesting. Our target audience would like this thriller as it is jumpy and would have unexpected twists if we were to film the whole thriller.
The narrative of our second narrative is set in a school/house. The opening sequence starts with a news reporter opening with the news of a group of teenagers who are suddenly dying due to a phone call. The footage starts with a point of view shot of the school/house and a close up on a girls face then suddenly her phone rings but she misses the call and listens to her voice-mail, this is where the twist is, the voice-mail is herself, she is listening to herself dying, she then starts to panic, later we see her running and at this point to audience does not know whether someone is actually following her or what, shaky camera work is used to create tension. We discussed this idea as a possibility for a thriller opening because we thought that it would be popular with our target audience.
Films such as ‘One Missed Call’ and ‘Paranormal Activity’ helped influence our idea and these films have been hugely popular with the audience we are trying to target.
We plan on using the camera in different angles to create suspense and tension. We’ll also focus on the silence at the end of the sequence when the antagonist has killed one of the protagonists. If we were to use this idea as our thriller opening we’d have to either film in college or someone’s house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1F7hJNsi5M
Final idea
The narrative of our third narrative is about a girl who is being watched why someone but the audience has no idea who, we came up with the idea whether there a strange character wearing black is in a dark room looking at pictures or two certain girls, one of the girls face has been crossed out, and the other there’s writing in near her picture saying next, we see that there is a lot of pictures of this particular girl. Later we see the girl walking about and it appears as if she is being followed. Since this is on opening thriller, we cannot tell the whole story to the audience as we want to keep them in suspense and wondering who this strange character wearing black is and what his plan is with these girls and why?. We would have to find a location for this, for example find a dark room where we have pictures of the girls all over the black wall.
We also plan on using the camera in different angles to create suspense and tension. Using shaky camera work. We’ll also focus on the silence at the end of the sequence. We discussed this idea as a possibility for a thriller opening because we thought that it would be popular with our target audience as it is a thriller and aimed at 16-25year olds.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Usual Suspect
In the opening sequence “of the film the usual suspects” we manage to identify a range of different key props that indicates us the audience that the genre of the film is a thriller. The first thing we relate as a typical thriller key prop of this opening sequence is the gun which was held by the villain. The villain was mysterious which enhanced the suspense. We manage to feel the film noir suspense with the use of the villain’s dark figured costume, to arise the level of suspense and revealing it’s genre of being a film noir film.
The location of the opening sequence is in a dark foggy ship dock yard which evokes an inexplicable idea of what might be taking place in such an unusual place. Also bizarre and suspicious, is the dialogue of the two character’s as, the audience are unable to identify exactly what’s happening. The sound perspective of the creepy orchestra tunes also rises the tension of the film‘s thriller genre.
The location of the opening sequence is in a dark foggy ship dock yard which evokes an inexplicable idea of what might be taking place in such an unusual place. Also bizarre and suspicious, is the dialogue of the two character’s as, the audience are unable to identify exactly what’s happening. The sound perspective of the creepy orchestra tunes also rises the tension of the film‘s thriller genre.
Introduction to the preliminary task
Day One is the day where we where given our preliminary task and we where told that we had to be in groups between 2-4, no more then 4, and no less then 2. The preliminary task was given to us and we where told to film anything we wanted but in the film we needed to show a person going through a door, and show a close up of the door. We where told that we needed to include a shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. We where also told that out film should only be 30seconds long.
Before we started filming we had to make a storyboard of the preliminary task. This was like a plan of what we wanted to film. We where then told that we needed to include every single detail of what we did and stages we where at on our blogs which we where given. We where told that we needed to include an evaluation of preliminary task, we where told to explain what we learnt from this task about filming and editing, what went well and what we needed to improve on, explain how we use a shot/reverse shot combination, and how we are going to achieve matched cuts and how we ensure that we don’t break the 180 degree rule.
Day 2
Day 2- Storyboard and Intro on cameras and tripod We all sat together making the storyboard coming up with ideas of what we can do, we all come up with different ideas, so we all had our disagreements, but we did manage to put our ideas together so that way every member of the group was happy. We finally managed to finish our storyboard. Then later that day we where given an introduction on how we should us the cameras and the tripod, we where given a presentation on how the cameras worked.We where showed how a camera can be mounted on a tripod. We where told about Tripod usage, and how they are used for both still and motion film-nary to prevent camera movement (as the camera is mounted on the tripod). Tripods do reduce camera shakiness which helps achieve sharpness. We where told how the tripod is helpful in achieving framing of the images. For example using a tripod for close-up of people of anything will allow us to use a slower shutter speed without worrying about moving the camera as we take videos. We where also told about what to do and what not to do with the tripods. We where told to make sure that the camera’s are always charged to prevent them from turning off while filming, we where showed how to use the camera.
Day 3 Started filming -Is the one where we starting filming, we went around college trying to find a location to film at. We learnt how to use the camera and tripod. We came up with different ideas on what and where to film. we started filing some shots in a classroom, where one member of the group had to walk round the corridor then enter a classroom, we then decided that we would show a close up on the door. We filmed this, showed it to one of the teachers, and we where told to do it again since it didn’t meet the criteria. So after reviewing it ourselves as well we decided to make a couple adjustments. We looked for a new location, so we started filming in the canteen. The plot for this was Nakeem (one of our group members) walking down the stairs then enters the canteen to meet his friends) We made sure that we filmed a lot of different camera angles to help us when we came to the editing part. We finally finished filming. Meaning that we had to move on to editing.
Day 4- We started editing, we saved our film on one of the editing computers, and we where showed how to view it using cut-pro. As we where unaware of how to use the editing computers, we had to teach ourselves by trying to do different things, we finally got a hang on using it. So we started putting our work together, included some effects etc. We had a few disagreements on how we wanted to edit the film, as we all had our own ideas. We then decided that two individuals from the group should do the editing while the other two is doing the blog, that way we will be able to complete the preliminary task in time. While the other two members where doing the editing, the other two where given the password and username for the blogger, we where showed how to access it and where told that any individual in our group can access it whenever they wanted as long as they had the password. In the blogger we made some few changes, by changing the layout of the blogger to make it more interesting.
Day 5- Still editing Still editing at this point, We where told to use the 180 degree rule, which basically means that two character in the same scene should always have the same left/right relation to each other, the camera should stay on one side of an imaginary line going between the characters. We broke the 180 degree rule a lot of times and reasons for this is very simple its because we moved the camera while shooting across the line, making this mistakes helps us because that way next time when we are filming we will make sure that we do not move the camera, this will refer to keeping the camera position within a field of 180°.We used shot/reverse shot on our preliminary task, this is where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. The characters are shown facing in opposite directions, so the audience will assume that they are looking at each other. Shot/reverse shot was used in our preliminary task when Nakeem (one of our group members) went to the cafeteria to meet his friends (Paige and Lillian) we used short/reverse shot when they where having a conversation with each other, first we shot Nakeem then we shot both Paige and Lillian to make it look as if the characters are talking to each other.
Day 6-Completed Finally finished filming and editing, just making adjustments to our blog. Looking forward to the real task, and hoping to improve it. This task as helped us because we learnt how to use the cameras and the editing computers, so this will make it easier for us on the second task.
Foundation Portfolio evaluation
What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?
In the making of the preliminary task we learnt how to use a tripod. and to use a camera correctly and also to make the shots match up we need to film it all on the same day as then it kept its consistency, we also used editing to make the prelim more exciting so it wasn’t boring, although some of our edits didn’t work in this task, in our main task we will be able to use more edits as we know how to use it. We learnt about the edits and the cameras by just using them we needed to be able to play around with the camera and edits until we got the right fit
In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?
There was some things that worked well in the fact that we worked well as a group, the only thing that could have been improved is that we could have had a clearer idea on what we was going to do for our preliminary, and about how many shots we needed to include in the preliminary, and what kind of shots which we needed to include, the problems we faced when editing is that we didn’t know how to use the final cut pro so we kept making mistakes which couldn’t be altered this slowed down editing time which made it harder to meet the deadline this also made editing a problem, also we didn’t know how to use the camera for example to do a shot reverse shot and a 180 degree angle as we didn’t want to break the 180 degree rule so we had to keep within the boundaries.
Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/ reverse shot combination in your film?
We used a shot/reverse shot by making the actors talk and then editing the piece to look like a shot/reverse shot, this was hard to do as we had to keep the consistency of the talking and so it looked the same and didn’t look mismatched.
Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process?
We didn’t achieve a matched cut as we didn’t show the character from behind just through the window, we would improve this by doing a view of the character from behind and also from the front, we needed to do this to show continuity.
Before we started filming we had to make a storyboard of the preliminary task. This was like a plan of what we wanted to film. We where then told that we needed to include every single detail of what we did and stages we where at on our blogs which we where given. We where told that we needed to include an evaluation of preliminary task, we where told to explain what we learnt from this task about filming and editing, what went well and what we needed to improve on, explain how we use a shot/reverse shot combination, and how we are going to achieve matched cuts and how we ensure that we don’t break the 180 degree rule.
Day 2
Day 2- Storyboard and Intro on cameras and tripod We all sat together making the storyboard coming up with ideas of what we can do, we all come up with different ideas, so we all had our disagreements, but we did manage to put our ideas together so that way every member of the group was happy. We finally managed to finish our storyboard. Then later that day we where given an introduction on how we should us the cameras and the tripod, we where given a presentation on how the cameras worked.We where showed how a camera can be mounted on a tripod. We where told about Tripod usage, and how they are used for both still and motion film-nary to prevent camera movement (as the camera is mounted on the tripod). Tripods do reduce camera shakiness which helps achieve sharpness. We where told how the tripod is helpful in achieving framing of the images. For example using a tripod for close-up of people of anything will allow us to use a slower shutter speed without worrying about moving the camera as we take videos. We where also told about what to do and what not to do with the tripods. We where told to make sure that the camera’s are always charged to prevent them from turning off while filming, we where showed how to use the camera.
Day 3 Started filming -Is the one where we starting filming, we went around college trying to find a location to film at. We learnt how to use the camera and tripod. We came up with different ideas on what and where to film. we started filing some shots in a classroom, where one member of the group had to walk round the corridor then enter a classroom, we then decided that we would show a close up on the door. We filmed this, showed it to one of the teachers, and we where told to do it again since it didn’t meet the criteria. So after reviewing it ourselves as well we decided to make a couple adjustments. We looked for a new location, so we started filming in the canteen. The plot for this was Nakeem (one of our group members) walking down the stairs then enters the canteen to meet his friends) We made sure that we filmed a lot of different camera angles to help us when we came to the editing part. We finally finished filming. Meaning that we had to move on to editing.
Day 4- We started editing, we saved our film on one of the editing computers, and we where showed how to view it using cut-pro. As we where unaware of how to use the editing computers, we had to teach ourselves by trying to do different things, we finally got a hang on using it. So we started putting our work together, included some effects etc. We had a few disagreements on how we wanted to edit the film, as we all had our own ideas. We then decided that two individuals from the group should do the editing while the other two is doing the blog, that way we will be able to complete the preliminary task in time. While the other two members where doing the editing, the other two where given the password and username for the blogger, we where showed how to access it and where told that any individual in our group can access it whenever they wanted as long as they had the password. In the blogger we made some few changes, by changing the layout of the blogger to make it more interesting.
Day 5- Still editing Still editing at this point, We where told to use the 180 degree rule, which basically means that two character in the same scene should always have the same left/right relation to each other, the camera should stay on one side of an imaginary line going between the characters. We broke the 180 degree rule a lot of times and reasons for this is very simple its because we moved the camera while shooting across the line, making this mistakes helps us because that way next time when we are filming we will make sure that we do not move the camera, this will refer to keeping the camera position within a field of 180°.We used shot/reverse shot on our preliminary task, this is where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. The characters are shown facing in opposite directions, so the audience will assume that they are looking at each other. Shot/reverse shot was used in our preliminary task when Nakeem (one of our group members) went to the cafeteria to meet his friends (Paige and Lillian) we used short/reverse shot when they where having a conversation with each other, first we shot Nakeem then we shot both Paige and Lillian to make it look as if the characters are talking to each other.
Day 6-Completed Finally finished filming and editing, just making adjustments to our blog. Looking forward to the real task, and hoping to improve it. This task as helped us because we learnt how to use the cameras and the editing computers, so this will make it easier for us on the second task.
Foundation Portfolio evaluation
What did you learn about the cameras and editing software during the preliminary task?
In the making of the preliminary task we learnt how to use a tripod. and to use a camera correctly and also to make the shots match up we need to film it all on the same day as then it kept its consistency, we also used editing to make the prelim more exciting so it wasn’t boring, although some of our edits didn’t work in this task, in our main task we will be able to use more edits as we know how to use it. We learnt about the edits and the cameras by just using them we needed to be able to play around with the camera and edits until we got the right fit
In the filming and editing of your project, what worked well and what could have been improved?
There was some things that worked well in the fact that we worked well as a group, the only thing that could have been improved is that we could have had a clearer idea on what we was going to do for our preliminary, and about how many shots we needed to include in the preliminary, and what kind of shots which we needed to include, the problems we faced when editing is that we didn’t know how to use the final cut pro so we kept making mistakes which couldn’t be altered this slowed down editing time which made it harder to meet the deadline this also made editing a problem, also we didn’t know how to use the camera for example to do a shot reverse shot and a 180 degree angle as we didn’t want to break the 180 degree rule so we had to keep within the boundaries.
Give a detailed, specific example of how you have used a shot/ reverse shot combination in your film?
We used a shot/reverse shot by making the actors talk and then editing the piece to look like a shot/reverse shot, this was hard to do as we had to keep the consistency of the talking and so it looked the same and didn’t look mismatched.
Give a detailed, specific example of how you achieved match cuts during the editing process?
We didn’t achieve a matched cut as we didn’t show the character from behind just through the window, we would improve this by doing a view of the character from behind and also from the front, we needed to do this to show continuity.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Bhaji On The Beach
Bhaji on the beach.
From this opening sequence I think this film is a drama because of the juxtaposition between each shop as the scenes open, this film was directed by Gurinder Chadha, this film was set in Birmingham because of the poster which is displayed, the scene opens by a panning shot of Asian and English shops, this shows a mixture of English and Asian culture. The opening scene shows racism as they show a Nazi sticker and a new right graffiti, this film is about social issues as it shows woman and the conflict they may have in Britain, in a dual identity culture. The opening scene also shows cutaways of Ginder looking after her family; this shows the demands of her day to day life. When the paper man delivers the newspapers he make a racist comment to Ginder which makes him think that she has come over from India, as he states that it is “going to be a scorcher, home from home” and also the newspaper states that Asians will put anything in a curry, this shows what the English think of the Asians.
The title to this film has a dual identity, as in some cultures “Bhaji” means food whereas in others “Bhaji” means elder sister, this shows what the film is about as a dual identity as there is a mixture of both Asian and English cultures. Though out the scene when the camera gets to an English shop they use English music and when they get to an Asian shop the music changes, they also use different props to show culture in the video shop, as most of the pictures and posters are Bollywood.
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