Props / Costume / Actors

Propsrope

red lipstick

wine glass

going out high heels

dark cloth or scarf

Costume list

ripped lace tights

heels

party dress

sparkly shawl 

Make up

BEFORE & AFTER HERE

Actress

Jordan Matthews - playing  Catherine

The making of

We studied 'In the Mood for Love' is an example of using colour and lighting to set the mood of the film. Using specific props and costume is as important as the other processes as they usually indicate the semiotics and hidden meaning behind what's being watched. 

Anamatic

This is our improved draft of the anamatic we produced as preparation before we offically going out to shoot. We found this effective music from freeplaymusic.com and chose this one over the others as it made us feel uncomfortable listening to it, which would have the same effect on the audience once the film was finished. On the shots of the flashbacks, to create a sense of a different time we photoshoped the images to make them appear more stern, with faded white edges to represent her foggy memory of how she got to where she woke up.

In our first anamatic we hadn't planned where we should put in the titles so we made the fades between the first five shots slower in order to add them and keep the pace of building up the suspense. The transition cuts between the present situation and the flashback, we improved the original anamatic but adding the sound effect of a drum. We chose this sound because it defined the difference of shot and is an heavy earthy sound which matches the mis-en-scene of the woods. 

When we experimented with the sound levels to see what was best effective to keep the gradual build up towards the end of our short beginning which suites the codes and conventions of the thriller genre we've chosen.

Using audacity

Audacity is a free program avaylible for me to use to create my own sounds to the effect i wish them to perform through recording and editing clips or un-copyright music files i've chosen from the internet.

The sound-editing software lets me record from a microphone or other input, dub over existing tracks and even create many layers and monitor volume levels. Its simple to use, but it's not as polished as other professional programs. 

I've practiced cutting, changing speed and pitch of my own recordings. It also allows me to copy, slice, and mix sounds together, remove constant background unwanted noises, alter frequencies and create effects such as phaser, echo, bass boost and equalization.

My group got together and we used an input microphone in order to achieve wind noises for our anamatic. We considered going outside to try and record real wind, but it would've been a bad quality sound, so we interperated what we thought would create the best mood through using our own breath, keeping constant and having all three of us to make layers.

The importance of sound

We watched how behind the scenes of making a movie is important to focus on sound. sound is a sense they used in 'The village' to pre-warn the audience of the bad mysterious character. 

Music and sound is a very powerful tool, it's just there, it works, exists as part of the film. The audience doesn't particually think about the sound, meaning its best effective as a subconsious factor. When you watch the movie you don't realise its creating the realistic feelings.

"sound is his special effects"

When looking at thrillers that have no action in them, the sound is the highlight of the intense feeling the audience feels. 

in The village, it's one of the most important factors because the main character is partially blind, so the sounds are increased and they reflect her fear. They experiment with using scratching of nails and ear piercing metalic non-diagetic sounds. 

In the 6th sense, all the background noise made to create the presence of ghosts is layers of people crying, screaming, and whispering so its unreaconisable. This gave my group the idea of experimenting making our own different sounds to add to our animatic, and eventually our film. 

Storyboard

art of storyboard

M. Night Shymalan produces very indepth storyboards spending weeks perfecting every shot exactly how he wants them so he as the best idea of the mood he wants to achieve. He believes with each blink comes a new thought, so the more cuts used, its more dangerous and can take something away from he film.

Good camera work need to make the audience feel like what they are watching is real, playing with human emotion to create the trilling feelings. 

They spend 16 weeks developing all the detail for only 2 hours worth of film. He thinks it's the most important part of the process of film making as it sets a base for all the decision making. The storyboard is the worst version the movie can be, when being filmed, tweaks can be made only to 

improve what the producers are already happy with. It also provides time for specific props to be prepared. 

They can test out different shot angles and ideas without wasting money, being efficient and good preparation. It give him the chance to be the director, actor and audience all at the sam time, considering all perspectives of the filming process and the final result.

"make the movie before you make the movie"

after realising how important this part of making the introduction to my own thriller would be, i fully focused on visualising each shot to achieve the most effective final product.

Development - Shot list

Our group discussed our final idea which changed as we went through the process of imagining each frame of the start of a story we were creating

1. edge of woods
2. closer into the woods
3. further into the woods
4. dark tree's
5. LA of tree's
6. Title - black background
7. blanc screen
8. C.U hands tied behind back
9. flashback - feet being dragged along floor
10. S.R.S hands tied behind back
11. pan from hands to back of head
12. flashback - body being dragged
13. pan from head to gagged mouth
14. flashback - mans hands tying gag
15. features of her face twitching
16. disorientating tree's
17. moving branches
18. LS of body on floor
19. disorientating tree's
20. struggling to break free
21. flashback - ECU red lips sipping wine
22. ECU gagged lips (contrast shot)
23. POV fast panning of branches above her
24. CU of her face, eyes flash open

ideas

I am working in a group with Lewis and Stewert so we shared our ideas by creating a mind map of possibilities we would like to work around for our own thriller opening.

our idea changed several times but we liked the idea of creating a disorientated feeling through the use of camera work so the audience is in an uncomfortable vunerable position to the storyline. As this is just an introduction to a film, we decided to only focus on one character who would be in a confused state of mind.

We decided to work in the setting of the woods, with the situation of a woman/girl tied up asthough dumped in the middle of nowhere. She doesnt know how she got there and we are going to establish her fear, panic and flash backs to try a place the pieces to how she ended up waking up in the scary setting.

Continuity Task

We had to prepare and produce a film of 30-60 seconds of our own film keeping continuity between a convosation. we started with our shot list

Person A walks up to a door
Handle is opened / pulled
Shot of person A walking through the door
Shot of person B sat down
Shot of person A sitting down next to them.
Shot of person A asking person B if they are ok?
Reverse shot (CU) of person B replying?
Two shot of person A and B – person B asks person A a question
Shot of person A’s reaction and answer
Shot of person B’s response.
This may be reapeated and varied as conversation develops – think carefully about this part. The scripting is important here!
Shot of person A getting up.
Shot of person A walking away.
Shot of Person B. Person A exits through same door as entrance.

we added a few more shots when producing our storyboards. I created the script and we found two actors to work with. We set our location in room 80 but had to relocate ourselves to another room as this wasnt avaylable at the time we had sheduled to shoot. When planning we had to abide by the 180 degree rule, which was hard to work with in a small space.
Here is our final plan

As a class we peer marked our work and created targets so we know how to improve our filming for next time. Overall my group were given a level 2 of 30/60. 

I could see that the focus of the camera is terrible but when we studied it, other factors brought the mark down as well.

our targets were

+ needed to be shot more from the characters perspectives in the S.R.S

   - replace where the actor would be with the camera

+ don't cut through a sentence

   - this interferes with the continuity

+ sound needs more work

   - due to bad choice of setting

   - room was too small to work in with an echo sound interfering with a clean sound

+ lighting is inconsistent

There were many features that we accomplished well

+ good range of different angled shots

+ Framing was generally used well

+ effective use of editing

+ camera was effectively used

i am reasonably happy with the result of the first video i've produced. I now know what i need to work on and have a better understanding of using a camera.

Thriller analysis

After studying the use of sound, camera, mis-en-scene and effects that are used to make good openings to thriller film, i am able to reaconise the iconic features used that are identified to this specific genre. I've realised, without these factors it wouldnt have such an impact on the audience because the story hasnt yet started. I have looked at The Birds, Sin City, Walk on the Wild side, and the sectret window.

Symbolical factors such as using black and white to establish evil and good, and using dim lighting to create a mysterious dark and eerie mood all add to the effect of suspence to leave the audience on the edge of thier seat ready to be shocked by the film.

Camera Practice

We got into a small group to practice the skills of filming using the camera. Our task was to capture various different angles and shots in order to understand the effect they have of the subject being filmed. Using a HD video camera is new to me so this task helped me get comfortable with the buttons and using a tripod accurately.

After studying these shots in detail and looking at examples from films i actively produced my own examples. By adjusting the legs of the tripod and the angle the camera sits i was able to shoot from high and low angles, even birds eye view and worms view. If i moved the camera while filming i was able to practice tracking, panning and tilting. If i placed the camera at different distances from the subject i achieved long shots, extreme long shots, mid shots, close up shots and extreme close up shots. To exxagerate impact on the subject i practiced zooming in and zooming out.
These skills i have learnt will help me further along the course

Adobe Premiere Pro

Premiere pro is the software i will be using throughout the course to edit my film. This is a new program to me so over a few lesson we practiced learning the skills needed to produce my continuity task and eventually my thriller opening.

We were shown a clip of a previous groups thriller opening from last year to study thier finished product. Then we had to use the raw files to recreate the piece as accurate as possible by following the frames per second. After importing the files, we had to order them (here we could have re-named them too), then edit them by cutting or trimming the clip. i also learnt other skills making it able for me to add transitions between the different shot, adding titles and effects, animating them, adding sound effects and overlaying.

This process of practicing recreating a scene has helped me understand how i need to put together my own film and able to keep continutity between a convosation.

Learning and progress

The three targets i set to improve on are

1. my writing analysis on film and Tv dramas

2. update my Blog more ofter

3. write my notes in a clearer form

Various thriller film notes

Scream - Wes Craven (1996)

The Shining - Stanley Kubrick (1980)

The Omen - John Moore (2006)

The Minority Report - Steven Spielberg (2002)

Thriller Questionnaire

I created this Questionnaire as another part to my Primary research to fiind out what the key features of a Thriller genre film are. It consists of nine basic questions aimed at the general public to collect thier knowledge and opinion of what makes a good thriller. I think this will help me in my development towards creating my own opening sequence to my own thriller because ill get a wider understanding of what others like to watch. Here is some examples of the feedback i gained from sending these out to my target audience.

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body funded through the fees it charges to those who submit films and video works for classification. The BBFC classifies films on behalf of the local authorities who license cinemas under the Licensing Act 2003.

What determines a cirtificate 15 to an 18?

15 – Suitable only for 15 years and over No one younger than 15 may see or rent a ‘15’ film.
The cirtification is given when all aspects of the film are considered. they over look discrimination, drugs, horror, nudity, sex, violence, theme, language and Imitable behaviour to encourage restictions so younger veiwers are not disturbed or wrongly influenced by what they're watching.

Details of sex and nudity are kept to a minimum, yet there may be strong language throughout. weapons shouldn't be glamourised and little detail of dangerous behavior so it cannot be copied. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be accepted but violence may be shown frequently. showing the use of drugs is acceptable aslong as it the misuse of drugs is not encouraged.

Suitable only for adults No-one younger than 18 may see or rent an ‘18’ film. At ‘18’ the BBFC’s guideline concerns will not normally override the principle that adults should be free to choose their own entertainment. Exceptions are most likely where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use, which may cause harm to public health or morals.

Other than this factor citificate '18' doesnt havnt have many restrictions of what the viewers are watching.
I found this information at http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

The Village

The Village (2004) is a very simplistic opening but I think it's effective in that it creates an eerie atmosphere setting a very uncomfortable feeling for the audience by starting with non-diagetic music slowly being played by a wooden flute giving an earthy impression. This haunting high pitched sound accompanies the low angle panning of tree's branches that fades in extremely slowly, making the audience feel inferior and intimidated by the . M. Night Shyamalan straight away introduced the felling of tension and suspense as the pace is tediously slow.
The element of mystery is created as the dark shot of the branches only sets the location as being in the woods which is also an iconic feature to the thriller genre. The tracking of black branches upon the gloomy grey sky appears to be silhouette, being simplistic and shot with dim lighting all adds to the winter cold mood of the film.

The branches have no leaves which signifies autumn or winter, bad weather being an iconic factor on thrillers, but could also be symbolical to death as the leaves have fallen and there's no sign of life. The parallel non-diagetic sound of a drum inflicts a shock upon the audience when the title 'the village' cuts on the screen. The icy cold white text opposes the harsh black background signifying the element of good and evil. The rest of the titles dissolve and appear to be weaving between the branches, along with the different angled shots of the branches implies the feeling to audience that they're lost in the woods, being vulnerable to danger.

Walk on the Wild Side

Edward Dmytryk created a good example for a thriller opening in Walk on the wild side (1962)

It starts with a zoom in to an extreme close-up of a black cats face, with its eyes central. The animal itself is symbolic to evil and witchery which makes the audience feel uncomfortable as it appears the dark creature is looking at them. The shot fades to another ECU of the cats curious steps which is acompanied by the non-diagetic orchestral music changing from dramatic to blues style which could signify a black ally cat emphosising its creepy and sly movements. As the camera pans its movement from different angles at mid-shot it focuses on the animal not the location creating a mysterious element as the audience dont know the cats whereabouts or its intensions on its travels. This iconic factor is reinforced through editing of fades and the cameras tracking and panning the cats delicate steps weaving through the dim lit piping. The superstition of bad luck if a cat crosses your path is represented through the different angled shots of the subject apearing out from the darkness.

The parallel music follows the slow fades and builds up when the pace of the cuts increase creating suspence for the audience. This is re-inforced by the parallel music as it changes to loud fast and sharp brass playing as the fast jump cuts between the extreme close ups of the black cats face and the white cats face as they fight one another. The pace of the scene picks up and the focus is on the feud which is exaggerated by the close-ups of their sharp teeth. The colours black and white symbolise good vs evil, and the central shot of the white cat retreating, being marginalised to the left represents bad triumphing over good. This could be an indexical sign that later in the film the hero could loose the battle in the storyline.

Sin City

Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, Sin City (2005) has an opening sequence like most other Action films as it doesnt start with titles, so its put into the subgenre of action-thriller as there are reaconisable iconic conventions of a thriller used within the seductive opening.

It opens with an establishing extreme long shot of a black and white city skyline at night, with the ambiet sound of the cars below enhancing the sence of realism and contrasting with the private enviroment of the balcony in the foreground. The dull colour pallet is iconic to the genre as black, white and greys set a sinister mood and focuses the audiences attention elsewhere. The first character is introduced as a skinny woman elegantly walks centralised towards the balcony showing she is an important character and could be in danger as she is frail and is portrayed as vunerable as she's wearing a backless red dress, being the only colour this is a strong signifyer of love, warning, and blood. A mans overvoice empowers her position as he say "she shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree" being an indexical sign that she is the subject of death which is close to come, acompanied by the slow pace non-diagetic jazz saxaphone which could indicate they're attending a party while also setting a sad wollowing mood by making the scene flow smoothly. This slow pace is iconic to the thriller genre using few cuts to prolong the opening creating tension for the audience.

When the male character enters the shot out of the darkness adding to the suspision of his intensions, the woman is marginalised to the right showing she's less of an important subject. During convosation jump cuts are used between the close-up shots of the character half lit faces to create continuity while being close-up and personal. Rodriguez also used the common found effect of dull lighting so half of the characters faces are in shadows. This binary opposition of his face half in darkness shows he's pretending or lying and can be trusted, yet trust is established by the extreme close up shot of the lighter exaggerates the steriotypical circumstance of the man being in power as she accepts a ciggerette from him. Her face is also only half lit, signifying she is hiding or running from someone, these mysterious factors and cold lighting adds to the suspence of the film.

In the next scene the sinister mood is created by the reconisable use of bad weather as the ambient sound of thunder is reinforced by the rain being an indexical signifier that something bad is about to happen. The mid-shot is edited in silhouette to appear like a comic strip which is uncommon and takes away the realism of the kiss to show things aren't as the appear. Then the iconic weapon of a gun is introduced after he kisses the womans red lips adding to the conventions of the action thriller genre. A flash of white appears at the same time as the parallel sound of the gun shot to establish the mans change of character and her last breath.

The Birds

The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock (1963)

The opening sequence of The Birds starts with a mid-shot of crows silhouettes frantically flying across the screen. This type of shot establishes the birds importance to the film and emphosises the manic feeling of their fast movements reinforcing an uncomfortable feeling towards the audience. The shot doesn't reveal the reason for the furiously flapping birds behaviour, creating the sence of mystery to the audience so they already feel uneasy. The harsh black silhoiettes of the crows symbolising darkness, death and fear are the binary opposition to the purity and innocence of the white sky declaring the factor of evil over good which is iconic to the thriller genre. the icy blue titles contrast upon the flustering scene behind capturing the coldness on the dark mood being created. Within this sequence the non diagetic paralell squaking is high pitched and sinister making the audience feel tense because the sound of frantic flapping wings creates a sence of realism and panic.

The sequence is then edited to fade into the city scene, establishing the farmiliarity of an everyday setting the audience can reconise, the now turned diagetic screaching of birds can still be heard in the background carrying on iconic feeling of uneasyness. The busy streets are revealed as a van wipes across the screen to reveal a central long shot of a blonde woman. The camera slowly tracks her every movement with no cuts so the connection of familiarisation is created between this main character and the audience as she walks towards the camera into a mid-shot establishing her importance. Her vunerability is clear in comparison to the large buildings around her which is emphosised when she looks anxiously into the sky, showing something aboce her is supirior creating tension and re-establishing the uncomfortable feeling for the audience.

Secondary research

I searched the Web for other peoples opinions on what they thaught defined a 'Thriller' genre before i studied openings of thiller films so i had an brief idea of the features that the audience commonly notice. This is the best definition i found.


After this introduction a question what is thriller was a main topic. Here are some of the possible answers. it is difficult to define the thriller in a quick and easy way. It is difficult to define “thriller” in the same way it is difficult to define”comedy”. Both words, “thriller” and “comedy” do not describe the form of the story in any useful or informative way. Both words essentially describe the effect a story of this type have on the audience: a comedy makes you laugh, a
thriller is,well, thrilling.
“...a story..in which the possibility of violent action, even death, is
close all the time.”
As our starting point, what are the implications of that principle? Well,
Highsmith said a thriller can be:
• a story with a threat of violent action and danger
OR
• a story of actual violent action and danger
And because so much of the story was concerned with either the threat or
the effect of violent action:
• The story worked on a fundamentally superficial level
BUT
• A good thriller can contain moments of profundity
So from this general principle, we can start to get real clues as to the shape
of our thriller stories:
• A good thriller puts the hero in danger early and never lets up.
• A good thriller uses a variety of techniques to impart and sustain
“intensity” for the audience:
1. frequent unexpected plot turns: suspense and surprise
2. exciting physical action
3. characters who twist into unexpected shapes
• A good thriller ends in a way which, within the context of the range of
devices already utilised to create intensity, is surprising, and even more
exciting than anything which has gone before.
• A good thriller will have a faster pace than the average film.
• A good thriller will increase the resonance of the plot twists as it
unfolds.

http://www.mediadeskcz.eu/uploaded/20080515051717-participants_report_vokjan.pdf