Preliminary VIdeo and Preliminary Evaluation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyfCt1azCHg

The preliminary task that was set for the group was to do a short film sequence of someone walking down a corridor, opening a door and having a conversation with someone else. As a group the things that had to be included was the 180* rule, a match on action shot, shot reverse shot and include continuity. Trying to include all of these was relatively easy, it was just knowing where abouts they would look best in the sequence.

the camerawork was pretty average. We had a lot of shaky shots and the movement shots were not smooth. The shots that we used were

• Long shot
• mid shot
• over the shoulder

All of the shots that we used made it visually interesting for the audience as we edited the shots to be at a fast pace. We decided that we would include computers and white boards to make it look more like a school environment. We found it difficult when moving the camera in one of the shots as the tripod was difficult to move as we were unaware of how to move it and loosen it up. One of the other movement shots that we used was going around the back of the actor. This was to show the change in the 180* rule. Unfortunately we broke the 180* rule earlier in the film which was very frustrating as this shows that we didn't think about it whilst we were filming. the steadiness of the over the shoulder shots were pretty bad as they were very shaky and i feel that we could have done it better and taken more time with it. Our strengths were the editing of the shots and mainly the tripod shots. i felt that like we had cleverly worked on the editing as it was visually interesting for the audience. our areas of improvements were to make the over the shoulder shots less shaky and to have a wider range of shots.

Our editing was pretty successful. I think we had done well to do this The sequence fit well together and all the shots joined well. We didn't stick to the 180* rule as we moved the camera without realising.We effectively used match on action in this particulare shot. Throughout the conversation we used shot reverse shot to show who was talking and the facial expressions. Thankfully the continuity was there. I thought that the titles were very basic and didn't really have a lot of effects on them as we felt that we should keep it very basic. We didn't really feel like we needed a lot of effects on the edit as we wanted it to be natural. The only thing we used was the fade in fade out as we wanted it to look more interesting. We used basic lighting as we felt like a complex lighting was not needed as we set it in a school environment.

The technical skills that I have learnt are how to use imovie on the mac, how to do a storyboard, shot types that work well together, how to effectively use lighting to create atmosphere. I want to improve on my knowledge of mise-en-scene for thrillers as i feel it will help me when it comes to making my thriller.

Planning: Actors

The original actors that I had chosen to be in my thriller unfortunately dropped out last minute so I had to re-cast. I have decided to use Jessica Hammond to be the person who plays the ghost. I thought that the ghost should be a girl instead as the audience would feel more sympathetic towards her in the rest of the film. I have also decided to use former student Kieran Gabbitus as the main character of the film. I felt that he was someone who would make a good addition to the film as he is an actor himself and he has the experience of being in front of the camera through his training and also as he has been in a media production before. Jessica has blond hair. this makes her look very innocent as a child and makes her more innocent to the audience. Kieran has brown hair and this makes him look very masculine. I feel that I have made a good decision with my casting and I feel that I am going to get a good result from it.

What makes an effective opening to a thriller?

The opening to any film is important as it sets the mood and the tone of the film. For a thriller film it is exactly the samehowever the pace of the openign would be faster and more like an action film in most cases.

What things do you look for in a thriller opening?
Camerawork~ the camera work in threillers you would expect to seee a lot of close ups, extreame close up, high and low angle shots. These are what you would most commonly see in thrillers as they have the most impact on an audience. The pace of the opening has to be quick cutting as it needs to have an effect on the audience to make them want to keep on watching the film and want to know more about the story and the charatcers. the camera work has to be effctive as the audience could get bored and wont continue watching it. In 28 Days Later the atmosphere in the opening scene makes the audience feel alone as does the charatcer. i had an area of mystery around it as you dont know why everyone had evactuate and he is left behind. This makes the audience more intregued to carry on watching it but also the camera work is very clever as the director has used a number of shots that are visually interesting.

Editing- as i said befer the editing has to be fast paced but not nessacerally action based. It can be jumping form one shot to the next in a quick motion or a tracking shot to follow the charatcers movements. In thrillers editing plays a very important part in making the film interesting as you constantly need the audience to be in a state of catharsis and you constantly need to surpirse them with shots and angles to show characters emotions and feelings.

Narrative~ the narrative in fims help the audience to understand what is going on or what has happened before that particular part in the story. The narrative is mainly a voice over which is done by the main character of the story. This introduces the story to us and also gives the audience an idea of what the charcter is like. Because the audience can only hear the charcters voice their imagination into what the character is going to look like has already been put into perspective. This gives the audience something to thing about diring the opening as they have not been fully iintroduced to what the charcter is like. This is an effective way of getting the story going and not giving the audience too much information but giving them enough to start their thought proccess into what the rest of the story could be.

Mise-en-scene~ this is one of the most important aspects of films in general. The costume,props, make-up, setting, etc is what makes a film. In a thriller film the costumes create a different between a good person and an bad person. You can be stereotypical with our costumes (white for good, black for bad) but you do generally see lighter colours on good guys and darker colours on bad guys however most of the thime they are not just black and white. Make-up plays a part in thrillers. For example, Dracula has a pale face but very defined cheek bones with sharp edges and darkened eyes. Where as Van Helsing has neutral make up. Depending on what type of thriller it is your props will vary. If you have an action thriller you would expect to see things like guns and high speed cars. If it is a horror thriller you would expect to see things like knives and face blood.

Shots I Will Use

Costume In More Detail

Clothing shades and colours

Ideas for titles discussion

In today's lesson I thought about the titles for my opening to my thriller. I really like the idea of getting burning paper/newspaper clipping of the house that burnt down there years ago. It is going to have the actors names burning on the paper to tie in the theme of the newspaper clippings. The speed of the shots will be sped up as the paper burning might take a while.

Things i have decided to do:

• Burn newspaper with names of actors etc
• Use pictures of an old house to fit the period on the newspaper
• The sequence that the storyline is going to be and a shot list

The Thriller Genre

Thrillers are films, books, TV programmes that use suspense, excitement and tension as its main conventions. They are designed to make the viewer feel a high level of anticipation, expectations and anxiety. Thrillers became most popular in the 1940s (just after WW2 ended). since then the story lines have become more shocking and relevant to everyday society. The most common sub-genres of thrillers are:

• Psychological
• Crime
• Erotic
• Mystery
• Paranormal

What conventions would you typically find in a thriller?

Camerawork & Editing~ you generally find a tracking or a pan shot at the beginning of your thriller. This is to show the action and so that the audience feel like they are moving with the characters if they were for example in a high speed chase. It mainly focuses on the character/ a group of people we should pay attention to. The shot that is most commonly used is the close up. It is used so that the audience can see the facial expressions of the characters or to put emphasis on a particular object.The two most common angle that are used are the high angle and the low angle. This create a dominance/innocence towards the character. For example, if your character is begin over powered by someone, you would usually use a low angle shot to show that that person is more dominant. However if you wanted to show someone being innocent then you would just a high angle shot to show the audience that the person they are looking down upon is innocent. The editing is normally very fast pased and uses a lot of jump cuts to show different events going on at the same time. This keeps the audience more involved with the story line and make it more exhilarating for them to watch.

Mise-en-scene~lighting is one of the key conventions in mise-en-scene as it creates atmosphere and tension. You mostly find that in thrillers the rooms are never really lightly lit. They are mainly dark spaces. Having dark space makes the audience feel very uneasy as they don't know if anything is in those dark spaces. The costumes depend on what type of character the actors are portraying. If you are an officer in a war thriller then you would be wearing an arm uniform. The directors use costume to make the main characters stand out if they are in a large crowd. It can vary from colours to fittings or even the complete opposite in style. The props that are used depend again on what type of thriller it is. If you are doing an action thriller then you could have props like knives and guns. The setting of the thriller depends on the genre/sub-genre. For example if you were using film noir then it would be set in a city where it is crowded and uncomfortable. But if you were doing a psychological thriller then it might be set somewhere far away from anything (towns or cities).

Sounds~ sound is probably one of the most important aspects in thriller films. Sounds create atmosphere and tension and set the tone/mood of the scene. The non-diegetic sound is mainly music that the editing team has put in there to create a mood. Some things like dialogue can sometimes be dubbed over after filming if the speech was not clear. The most common non-diegetic sound is the soundtrack that plays during the titles of the film. Diegetic sound is sound from within the film so things like footsteps and speech from actors. Footsteps can be used in many different ways in thrillers. They create tension and atmosphere for the charatcer and the audience as someone is walking towards the character. It creates catharsis and in some situations you can feel like you empathise with he charatcer. Another non-diegetic sound is narrative. Some film openings have voice overs to introduce charatcers and story lines. This is a very interesting technique to use as the audience cannot see where the voice is coming from but they know it is a character from the film.