Friday 7 May 2010

Evaluation Q7

Our preliminary task was to film and edit a character including:

-Opening a door

-Crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character,

-Exchanges lines of dialogue.

-Shot/reverse shot and 180-degree rule.

We did everything of the following, however it wasn’t done to the best of our abilities. He made quite a few errors and our storyboard was not fully done as we were rushing into it. Also we did not take it seriously because it was just a draft although it helped us acquire basic skills needed to use the camera. It was a 30second video that we had to make. In our final product (opening sequence) we have improved our technique significantly as we have used various shots, angles, editing and transitions. we also looked carefully into the dietetic and non dietetic sounds. our soundtrack was made from scratch and not borrowed from another as we thought this may have been copyright. The lighting and sound was extremely effective in our film as it needed to show exactly what time of day it was in order for the story to be told correctly. Overall we learnt a lot from our preliminary task and therefore made a great deal of improvement for our final production .The preliminary task helped a lot to make the final production successful and look professional.

Conclusion

Overall I believe that our film was a complete success. We put a lot of hard work into it from the beginning starting from the script and storyline and story plan. It took us a lot of time to find which location would be good for our opening to a thriller movie. It was also successful as our audience feedback showed us that they understood the story line, the main character's situation, location, use of effects and editing, ideologies, enigmas. The audience also figured what we wanted to portray. We did not lack anything or have any weaknesses however if we had more time we would have added more locations which would cause more suspense also the sound in which your main character speaks was abit low die to the editing going wrong, however if we had more time this could have been corrected well. In my opinion I think that our final product looks very professional as well as it is very successful and has been edited professionally

Evaluation Q6

I learnt to use slideshare.net and sost importantly I have learnt how to edit, find information on the Internet, such as using Google.co.uk to search for sites such as, YouTube.com, Facebook.com, etc.
We used youtube to post our video up so we can attactch it to the blog.Here is a printscreen of the production:


I have also learnt how to set up a blog and how to keep updating it, lets the reader get more information. I have uploaded a lot of work onto our blog, such as what we will make as our open ing sequence, what we did make, how we made it, etc. We posted our video up on facebook. The advantage of this was that as we posted this up on facebook we got user feedback as to how our video was and other peoples opinions and what would make the video better so any improvements.



Technology
We used our blog and a camera to plan our opening sequence as well as a storyboard where we discusses every single step so that when we plan it would be easy. We used e-mail to contact our audience and get the feedback of them. We used a video camera to film our opening sequence, which was very easy to use as we learnt how to use it in previous lessons when planning. Another thing that helped me about thriller movies was the internet as it help me with existing movies which could give me ideas about my own thriller movie. It helps me find information about films that have been successful, what genre works best, what companies are popular. It gave me a lot of ideas and therefore produced a successful opening to a thriller movie.


Evaluation Q5

Our opening sequence is very similar to the film “The dark knight” as the disruption has already happened. It creates a mood of tension as the main character is killing anoher guy and there are flashbacks used throughout and will soon tell us why he killed and and what his intension was.
There are many enigmas in our opening sequence, for example where there are flashbacks, such as, “What was he doing in his office late night?”, “Why?”, “What had he done wrong?”, etc. There are also some enigmas in the field scene, for example, “Why did he kill him?”, “what is he after?”, “Who is the antagonist and protagonist ”, “where is she?”, “will she ever get home?”, etc. These are your typical enigmas in a thriller film, which will help us attract our audience, as they will want to keep watching.
We have introduced ideologies in our opening sequence, such as villains, victims and the way genders are shown. For example, our main character is a male which is very popular to have in thriller films as the female is shown as the weaker sex and men are shown as more dominant. Also we show he has more power throu the way he is dressed up.We have created a sense of time by showing the beginning where his identity is not revaealed and after when he revaeals him self. The first shot is in darkness and does not give away what is happening. P.O.V is used when he is making the bomb as we can see what he is doing from his own point of view.We used natural lighting on the second scene but we shot it during the day so it comes out clear and effective. There is also a lot of natural sound in this scene, such as the river, and the sound of the wind blowing, which is also effective as it shows the audience what time of the day.


We have used media language, the music, editing, sounds, having enigmas and ideologies to help create our opening sequence. We hope to attract our audience to keep watching, therefore by using media language we hopefully have succeeded.We used effects such as transitions to create a different style to the film (flashbacks), we have also used editing in order to create our film, such as,Cutting clips, Adjusting the volume,Applying music,Duplicating the sound from one clip and applying to anotherBy using media language, we have attracted an audience and we have kept them watching, made them ask questions understand the ideologies, shots and the way we edited it, which is what we where hoping for. Therefore we can say that it was successful.

Evaluation Q4

Our target audience is teenagers as it is a thriller film with a teenage main character and theme. We have targeted it at this age group, as we believe that that they will be particularly happy with the genre, as they are old enough to watch it.

We also believe that people from over the age of 18 may also enjoy this genre so they are a secondary audience. They will enjoy it, as they wont be as scared as our younger audience, however, they will be left with a cliff-hanger and thoughts to what will happen. They will also be left with many enigmas, including what will happen after the cliff-hanger.
We believe that our main audience will be teenagers, as they tend to enjoy horror/thriller films. However we have aimed it at both males and females but more concentrates on males as they enjoy the action suspense and thriller movies more than females.

Also people who have an interest in watching thriller films will enjoy our film, as it is a thriller genre. We think that people of all races will enjoy this film as it has been made for teenagers and above who will hopefully enjoy the genre of thriller.

Evaluation Q2

Our film is targeted at our age grouped teenagers, this is because due to it being a thriller film, people around this age group are allowed to watch it, and therefore that is why we have chosen them to grab their attention. We have used a character of a man, who is in an unknown environment and is making a bomb. The costume we have used for this is black shoes, black tie, black briefcase, black suit. We have used this clothing to show that he looks like a typical businessman. The use of black clothing connotes a villain and adds questions in the audiences mind. Hw is dressed like a normal casual businessman so that he fits in with the rest of the crowd throughout. The way he is dressed shows that he is a confident man who knows what he is doing. We make him wear a suit as that is a stereotypical thing for a businessman to wear.
We have made the character wear a shirt in the beginning so he starts off with wearing casual clothes when he has not revealed his identity but when he walks out in public he is in a suit. This makes it clear to the audience what is being portrayed. The only thing we have made our main character do is to walk confidently, as the audience needs to know that something unusual has happened as he walks normally although leaving briefcases in different locations. There is no dialogue in our opening sequence as the main character is speechless as he is making the bomb. The soundtrack makes the scene more uplifting as it is a fast beat.


Our character is quite a common victim as he is doing things casually and quickly when setting the bombs in different locations. Our audience, who gave us feedback, knew that there was something doing on when he was making the bomb and questions raised as to why he put different suitcase in different locations? This is what we needed in order to convince our audience into believing that he was the main character, therefore the outcome was a successful in the end when he throws the simcard away.

evaluation Q1

Our opening sequence was a thriller film, called "Fatility".
The genre of our film is thriller. We chose this type of genre as people aged around our age group tend to enjoy thriller films, rather than other genre films, as they are more eye-catching and attractive. This helps the audience to feel more engaged by looking at the genre. To make it into a thriller film, we made the story based around successful movies that have been produced. This is because, due to them being produced, we have more of a percentage of having a successful and professional film. To make it have tension, we used very pressurizing music in order to create a sense of anxiety and stress, which follows our story line. We have used a soundtrack which has an uplifting beat which emphasises the suspense. Also our soundtrack changes as we finally show the face our main character.

In order to create conventions in our film, we used various camera angles and shots, such as long distance shots, close-ups, medium shots p.o.v shots. By using various shots, we created a sense of for example, the p.o.v shot, creates a sense of you being in the film as you saw what the main character, Julian, saw. Like the focus on the making of the bomb, Which is effective as it attracts the audience and draws them in to watch more.

Our opening sequence fulfils the requirements of a thriller film as it opens with a feeling of tension and a sense of something being wrong in the making of a bomb. Our characters face is not revealed therefore it creates more tension as to who this character is and what his plot behind all of this is. It also includes an abandoned location, where the main character is sitting on a desk with screws and wires around him and we have focused the lighting in such a way that you can only see the hand of the character and what he is doing, his identity remains unrevealed until the second big scene where his identity is shown. Our opening sequence creates a mood in which there is an obvious sign that this main character is doing something but it builds tension in the audiences mind as to what and why he is doing it.

Overall, I believe our opening sequence includes all the requirements of a successful and professional thriller genre film based and connotes terrorism.

evaluation Q-7

evaluation Q-6

evaluation Q-5

evaluation Q-4

evaluation Q-2

Evaluation (Question5)

Evaluation (Question5)

We built many elements enduring to help build an appeal to our target audience. We only had one character , from what I would understand from just watching the opening of our film I would probably be thinking the character is a villain for the time being, building that sense would be on point as we don’t intend to thought all the twists, turns, and mysteries straight away in the opening . However, we intended to construct a frame which for the audience to atleast thinks he is a villain. We framed many camera shots at times either to show an understand but also at times building focus on something particular as the audience engage with the film. Soundtrack is relevant as all sound we used, were co-linked around a gloomy action packed music theme which fits good with the scenery as we tried build impact energy in our opening to make the audience think something is going to happen. Furthermore, we gathered initial audience feedback which is essential ,as we analysed as a whole main target that our downfalls were in near the exact opening were the character was building a bomb the lightings effects were to bright editing, inconsistent shots camera shots changing , coming in from different directions which was noticed by quite a few candidates, , another main downfall noticed was the soundtrack from the minute 1:08 the constant beating sound was described by many as too over the top main of all a critic. However, from our initial feedback we did gather positive points , such as plot was described mainly the best part alongside the scene when the character is making the bomb , that has been our main honour in favour as I guess it may have catched the eye of the audience

Evaluation (Question2)

Evaluation (Question2)

There is only one specific main character playing a part in our opening thriller. He is young aged Asian man, well presented in a formally in a smart suit. We chose a character around this category because corrodes around our theme which is terrorism, suits in around the stereotypical focus of terrorists. My group carried out questionnaires about these thoughts and went along with the audiences stereotypes.

Evaluation (question 6)

Evaluation (question 6)

The college equipment provided in the use of film production regarding location, studio filming was essential. It helps me construct more depth in the basic rules of filming. We decided as a group to film a scenery in the college drama studio using the lighting equipment this helped enhance our production to a better standard as it would not look eye catchy or at I good standard. Furthermore I also improved my skills on how to use a camera to a better degree. We used a professional video camera (cannon xm2). I built understanding on how to capture footage which I never done before using a professional camera, I experienced about white balance feature which endures rich and dull colours performing to make the scene more realistic. I used the tripod which helped steady recording which was favourable, saved us a lot of hassle as the production run fluently. The use of the tripod also helped us recording different angles , such high angle , low angle , and the panning from right to left , left to right , all directions helped smoothen the recording.

Problem that occurred for us in our production, were weather delayments as some of the days it was raining and we not intending to film in our shoot in the rain, however we overcome this by changing the schedule. We had slight difficulties at first in handling how to use the camera but eventually we got hand used to it.

We used editing software called final cut pro it helped us edit cut and add stuff to our film. This was crucial as it made the film look much better to higher standard. We added different sounds at times to each scene to help construct a better flow of what’s happening, which is another key advantage

Evaluation-Q7

Looking back to your preliminary task,what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

our preliminary task helped us to understand the importance of the planning and scripting before going in straight for the filming as lack of organisation will ruin the whole set and waste time which will probably end up with poor results. even though we passed the task,we still felt we could do much better,therefore,we made sure that we had planned carefully on our storyboards and scripts. we also made sure we did a clear research on our chosen genre and sub genre and think carefully about representations.
We used a variety of different shots in our opening such as an establishing shot,close ups,and a few high and low angle shots.
we also looked carefully into the diagetic and non diagetic sounds. our soundtrak was made from scratch and not borrowed from another as we thought this may decrease the realism.
for our editing,we used fast cuts so the opening as more of a fast flowing rhythem which goes wel with the soundtrack,there were a few fade in and fade outs and slow motion was also used at the end to emphisis on the tension

Thursday 6 May 2010

evauation Q4

The audience for our media is people over the age of 15,as our film will contain some violent scenes. before we made a certificate for the film we had to be certain on who our audience would be,therefore we carried out a questionnaire to a variety of different age groups asking them about the types of films they are interested in. we found that many males from the ages of 15+ were interested in thriller action-packed films,we also found that they weren't into films which contained romance and love,but mainly fast,action packed scenes.
Therefore,we decided to have an action based thriller with the main plot involving terrorism as we knew this would be popular as it is a recent issue and also it would contain realism.
we also looked in depth at the representation of the main character.

evaluation Q2

The main character in our media product was meant to be a middle aged asian terrorist. this fits in with the stereotypes of a terrorist as we gave out questionnaires and interviews to the public asking them on what they think a stereotypical terrorist would look like. we based our main characters on the audiences stereotypes.
however we also made sure that he was smart and classy,as near the end of the film,the audiences realise that he is not the villian but instead the hero.
we also had to think about gender,which was an important factor as a terrorist could also be a woman,however,we wanted to keep to the stereotypes that people have about the power and authority given to different gender. we asked a variety of differnt types of people-from different age,gender and ethnicity,and 89% of them agreed that this was a patriarchal society (male dominant). therefore we wanted to make sure that the main character held a lot of power and therefore we made our main character a male.

evaluation Q1

In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
our media film opening was based on a thriller film.therefore it was vital for us to have appropriate research on our chosen genre.After our research,we found the convensions of thriller films,we found that normally,they tend to consist of the following;
--> fast pacing helped with a lot of editing
--> frequent action
--> heroes who are against more powerful and better equipped villains

We also looked at the openings of other thriller films to give us a broader understanding of the themes and conventions used. Films such as Seven,Final destination and Taken.
When making our own thriller opening,we made sure that we took the following into consideration;
-->the title of the film;
we called the film 'fatality'.We thought this would be a suitable name as we noticed that thriller films usually have a name which consists of usually only one or two words.
-->The setting and Locations;
we have many locations throughout the opening as that fits in with the main plot of the story line. we wanted to ensure that the places we chose were all well known areas as it would make more of an effect if a well known popular tourist attraction was at risk rather than an area not many people were familiar with.
-->Costumes and Props;
we made sure that the main character who was identified as a villain in the beginning wore a black suit as it gives connotations of a shady character.
we also established the character in the beginning as mysterious. therefore we used lighting effects to hide his identity,however throughout the rest of the scenes we uncovered his identity as we wanted him to blend in with the crowd when planting the bombs so it could be seen that he looks like a normal business man.
the special effects we used were lighting effects and quick editing shots which fits in with the conventions of a thriller film


Thursday 1 April 2010

Questionnaire

Evaluation (Question 4)

Q4) From our initial research we gained and understood that our film should mainly be targeted at age rated 15. From all our research we gathered, initial feedback was mainly sparked most interest from that range of category (aged rated 15). Most of our positive feedback gathered and interests was from around the aged category of 15-25it appear we were informed that “our idea is not common, something different for a change which mainly gathered attention… especially the story being revolved around terrorism … in some cases it reflects the inner world of what’s happening which consumers described as “reluctantly interesting” showing us that it is in worth producing around. However, as we did get positives and negatives, mainly our came from the younger generation, but most of our critics and dislikes came from the older generation, which we gathered feedback date in our questionnaires and interview forms. We were informed it was too vague and compact for the story to evolve around. Films such as The boy from Lebanon, the extremist, Hijack etc all revolve around our category which is terrorism. They may

have different storylines but implicate terrorism which is the most common factor. The listed films mainly appeal also to around the same age range as us. I have analyzed and looked at views and comments on those films gathering most that were interested are around the same lines as us in target audience. In our production we have only one character whom is asian. We have not represented Asians stereotypically in any way but we chose a character whom we decided that can fit in best in for our play role which the audience may also appeal too.

Evaluation (question 3)

Q3) From general understanding our film we produced as a whole could be produced by a major Hollywood film studio as they might just catch glance of something skillful in our production, However, realistically the film base has more of a glimpse chance to be arthouse film company with limited resources at first, later on starting to gain and build to a high professionalized production. Status, then beginning of on internet/television but still maybe laidback
due to limited funds. A film company/ a production company may gather and see our production and see talent and may give us a professional advice, or refer us to a small firm to start off our beginning career film career. Our film is similar to other productions as we tried to keep it as professional as we can, our film is similar to ideas from films casino royale, the getaway, the story plot is different but the way the directors have tried to engage the film so close to the audience we see that as key to our production; to grab full attention of the audience. Our film can be successful depending how good it is promoted, the more people that know about, starts to spread the name and helps in making it more publicized. Our film can start of at generally picking up (increasing) selling point. being promoted well enough it can lure attention from franchising/merchandising companies that would like to invest around a film by targeting it in the market for a reasonable price perhaps until it starts to gain but to endure success we would need to catch an eye of higher classes stated production company

Analysis of the opening of the grudge 3(horror thriller film)

The opening the starts of "when someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage ... a curse is born " followed up by "the curse in that place of death" then "those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury" appearing , straight away this builds confusion ,enigma and surrounds the audience with several explanatary questions running through their mind.Furthermore, it follows up with the opening scene entering with a close up shot tilting slightly downwards at the appearing actor. This is making the audience have full attention on this specific male actor has he expresses a distinguishing fierce, worried look and is staring down in slight moments of shaking which causes a tense entrance. Then the scene scopes up “those who will survive will carry the curse with them…” with a spooky soundtrack making the audience imagine what’s happening but however they do not have a clue atleast yet. After a few seconds in the same scene appears “until is reborn” causing an erosion in the a human mind perhaps some may understand something terrible is going to happen attacking the mind in confusion with questions. Moving on , the camera skips back to the male character with still a close up of his face as he says worry and his facial expression hes scared and is tensed causing the audience to focus on his facial expression” please don’t leave me and you.. he gets a response from sounding of a female actress “ don’t worry I wont be long , he reply’s “she’ll kill me before you get back in a stuttered voice and gets a response “you’ll be safe here, nobodies going to harm you” as this is happening the camera is still focusing on this actor but the camera is slowly zooming out away from a close up of his face, the conversation continues “ im only locking the door because were worries you’ll leave again as the female actor says, he starts to pump deep breathing and looks up, assuming he is looking at her he starts to panic and is facial expression as if he is going to cry, the audience must be glued in the film trying to puzzle out what is happening ; what is he scared about? , what happened ? etc…the director may specifically directed the camera tilting slightly downwards at the actor maybe telling us the other character is dominant and is powerful. As the camera is zooming out you see the side half of the other character as they are still talking the male actor says “ I was only trying to leave here because she was in here …followed up he says “ in an echoing voice as if he was crying “ why are you doing this to me in a relentless horried expression… she replies “I promise you Jake(characters name) I would never let anything happen to you in a sort of sarcastic untrustworthy tone making audience she’s probably lying , as this is happening the camera is still zooming out , slowly unfolding the other character until she is revealed as she comes and sits next to Jake, Jake is scared , nervous, tensed , focused perhaps thinking about something in fear or anger as we don’t know yet what’s is actually really happened/happening. The camera finally skips to unveiled female character as she says “ I have to make sure your safe and I need to attend other patients” this slowly starting to build sense that he may admitted to somewhere perhaps some kind of hospital, suddenly the camera scene skips to a medium long shot of the two characters but revealing a tattooed arm in the right corner of the scene blurring out the arm , so its telling us to still focus on the other two characters as the woman looks up towards at the third character, she then points up in the corner telling Jake “you see the camera up their , showing us then a new camera shot as we from the cameras point of view looking at the two characters. Then the camera skips back to side view from the woman looking at Jake as she says “ someone will be watching you , then at the same time the soundtrack deepens in two a fierce tensed , horror sound and Jake is emotionally scared ,worried and shook of what’s happening. He thens says “that wont stop her looking at the female character then puts his head down starts to fall in tears. The audience must be starting to build their own scripts and scenery of whats happening in their own minds causing a tensed epic start to horror thriller film

storyboard




script

EVALUATION- question 1

Wednesday 31 March 2010

Monday 29 March 2010

Opening to an inspiring thriller movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdxXPV9GNQ

Dates and Times

We had a deadline to hand in our filming by so we had to decide the dates we were going to film on, Because of the good weather we decides to film on the days which we thought would be suitable. We decided that we would film in the weekend because we all have school during the week and not all of us could make it on the same days during the week days therefore we decided as a group that we would meet up at a certain location and from there start filming. Also when we started filming we made sure it was during the day because we needed enough natural lighting. Our first location was the drama studio which wasn’t a problem because it was indoors. Followed by the second scene which was at central London and Wembley park station. The day we were filming at central we reached there early because it was far and we didn’t want to get there too late as we needed enough natural light.

Analysis Of Casino royale Thriller

Another film that we thought of analysing was Casino Royal. The reason why we chose this film was because it had a very grabbing and eye catching opening exactly what we needed to inspire us to make a good thriller opening of our own.

The first shot is of the outside of a building. At the begging you see two captions. One which says “Czech Republic”. This indicated to us where the location is and shows the audience what kind of genre it is going to be. As we can see it is taking place in the middle of the night in front of an unknown building. We get an enigma questioning who is sitting in that car?. This makes it more with suspense and makes the audience keep watching to find out more. The scene then cuts to the character coming out of the car and entering the building. We then see the character going up in a lift as he is inside the building. There is a good use of an extreme close up as he is going up the lift. The soundtrack is very interesting and mysterious which builds tension in the scene. This makes the scene more eye catching as you ant to know more about this person and what are his motives and why he entered this dark and mysterious building. The music is the most important part of the film as it creates a mood so it gives you an idea of what is happening. We then see a close up of the lift numbers changing as it goes higher and higher then it stops.


This creates a sense of thrill as it makes the audience wonder what he has stopped on that particular level. We then see him walking to a room. He enters the room and shouts the door slowly behind him. Slowly he walks to a desk in the darkness. This creates a thrilling mood as it makes the audience wonder why he is going there and what he is about to do. As he is walking he slowly pauses and look at anther persons reflection in the mirror. With the thrilling music playing, he quickly turns around and we hear a voice as the music plays more up beating to create tension. He then jumps suddenly with shock and sudden movement. There is then a quick shot of another person inside his room and there is a use of a close up of him and we are now introduced to the second character. It then shows someone in his room, they then give a close up of him, and this is now our second character. He walks up to his seat and sits down which the second character talks to him, the name of the second character is “Bond”. He simultantiously opens the first drawer at his desk which the gun is placed inside as he takes off his gloves. This crates questions in the audiences mind as to who is this man, will he shoot him and what does he want?. This creates a lot of tension; we then see a flashback from “Bond” (The second characters) point of view. In the flashbacks we can see him hitting someone in public toilets. This scene is done in black and white.
The director uses colour to portray the scene with loud and fast music to create the scene and make it more fast to build tension in the scene.. It then stops and goes back to a close up of the second character introduced (Bond) with the slow music. There are many close ups used at this point. These close ups stand out of the slow tensing soundtrack.
At this point there is a use of dialogue as we get another flashback and at this time he is killing him. He does this by trying to drown him with forceful actions. We have many questions in our mind as to why is Bond so violent? why is he doing this? And why he killed him?.
Later on we find that Bond takes out the bullets from the other characters gun as he takes out his own gun and shoots him quickly. It then shows him back in his flashback as he picks the gun up from the floor and he points it at the screen.

This technique used makes up at the edge of our seats as if he is shooting us. At this point the title of the film appears. I found this opening very inspiring and it gave us ideas and helped us with our own opening.

Thriller Opening Research

Target Audience

With the help of the research from questionnaires we decided to base our target audience on teenagers around the age of 15 as we don’t have any inappropriate language and violent scenes.Here are a 3 things we came up with to help us decide this in detail:

Gender:
We have decided that this type of segmentation in our target audience is not relevant to our thriller film, as we feel that both genders like films of the thriller genre.

Race:
This is another type of segmentation which does not matter in the target audience for our film, as we fee that any race will like the genre of thriller. There are some types of films, such as the ones produced by Bollywood, whos target audience is mostly a certain race, Indian.

Age:
We have decided to make our film a 15 as it does not have any violent scenes and it will be perfectly suitable.

Thriller opening sequences

We are now going to analyse the opening sequences of several thriller films, to see the mis-en—scene and also how the location, characters, props and other things are portrayed. Also we are going to look at how the use of the music, lighting, make-up, dialogue and camera angles creates a mysterious and unknown effect, which helps set the scene in most thriller films and movies. An opening sequence is meant to try to get the audience into watching the rest of the film, this is done by catching the audiences imaginations by the use of effects and details used such as music and lighting and character roles. It is also achieved by creating enigmas within the opening sequence; also this makes the audience continue to watch the rest film, as they want to find out the answers to these enigmas. The opening sequence is mainly the reason why people carry on watching the rest of the movie. An attention grabbing atmosphere also needs to be created at the opening sequence, to again keep the audience 'glued' to the film

Film production roles

Sunday 28 March 2010

Drama Thriller (the prestige)

This is an example of a thriller which shares the sub-genre of a Drama thriller

Action thriller

This is an example of a Thriller film which shares the sub genre of an Action thriller.

Day after Tomorrow

This film is an example of a thriller which shares the sub-genre of a disaster thriller

characteristics of thriller films.

Thriller films usually consists of a location that is in a busy area with vulnerable people who are accustomed to be in life threatening danger.
This can either be a busy city,or a foreign country which makes it harder for the hero to make his way around the problem and try and save the victim.
The hero is traditionally a muscly and smart man who can be charming yet brave and fierce.through out the years,the hero has normally been a male,however,in recent years women have been taking the lead role if not with the male himself as a sexy female hero.
The women are represented as 'sexy' and good-looking to draw the audience in. In thrillers,the villains identity is usually hidden, hence in our thriller we hid our main characters identity in the first scene. Thriller films tend to capture the audience by having a tragic ending where the main hero gets killed in the process of saving someone else or trying to defeat the villain.

Sub-genre of thriller films

There are many different conventions of a thriller film.
Our thriller was an Action thriller,this sub genre of thriller usually consists of a race against time,lots of pressure on the hero and a villain.Example of a thriller film that shares a sub genre of action are the James Bond films.
Other Sub-genre of thriller films are Crime thrillers. this can be films like Reservoir dogs and Seven. Both these films focus highly on the villain,as they are made to be extremely clever and deep inside.
Disaster thrillers have been quite popular over the years as they consist of films with earthquakes,volcanoes,and other natural or man made disasters that the heroes are struggling to keep in hand and managing to save as many people as possible. Examples of this type of film is 2012 and The day after tomorrow.
Drama thrillers have also been a hit with the audience. thrillers under this sub genre usually are slow paced however consist of many twisted plots and surprises. An example of this kind of film is The Prestige,where many plots are used.

Conventions Of Thriller Moives

When we decided on the genre of thriller for our opening sequence, we discussed the codes and conventions of a thriller film. Before planning or doing a storyboard for our opening sequesnce we had to decide what it consited off. We also had to decide what sub genre we wer going to do our opening sequence on. After a lot of brainstorming and thought we decided to do a “terrorist action thriller moive”.The reason we chose this was beacse it is not a very common topic and a sun-genre and is quite unusual. However we found that in all of the thrillers the location of the opening sequence is usually hard to distinguish, this may be to make the characters feel more singled out and scared, or so it makes the setting more mysterious which creates In all thriller films we found that there was a villain and victim character such The Dark Knight which we did an anaylisys of. Another convention of thriller films we took into account when deciding on our opening sequence was the plot. The general plot for a thriller film is mystery We have used this idea of a buisenessman to to make it look less revaling to the audience. We also found that the villain character was quite often disguised, unknown, or had their identity hidden for the opening sequence of the film for example in the first scene in the making of the bomb when we used the lighting in such a way that the identity remains unrevealed and unknown.Another convention of thriller films we took into account when deciding on our opening sequence was the plot. The general plot for a thriller film is mystery.

special effects

We used special effects in various different shots. slow motion shots were used at the end to create tension and a build up. the slow motion goes well with the soundtrack and makes the scene more edgy. It also build the characters characteristics.
Special effects are used in many thriller films as it fits in with the conventions of thriller films.
there are two main types of special effects; Mechanical effects which are done during the making of the shooting.This can be done with props which can be used to create effects in the atmosphere,such as wind,rain,clouds etc. This can also include makeup and physical effects,which is effects made physically or manually.
The other type of effects is optical effects which is made by tricks used in the camera,so this can be used when making the object or the character look as tho they are in a different character.

Equipment


FIRST LOCATION (DRAMA STUDIO):
* Camera
* Tape
* Battery
* Tripod
* Lighting (Professional)
* Screws
* Music
* Character
* Wires
* Tracking Equipment
* Casual jumper/Shirt
* Other tools

SECOND LOCATION (WEMBLEY PARK & CENTRAL):
* Camera
* Tripod
* Battery
* Tape
* Characters
* Lighting (Natural)
* Not copyrighted music
* Props – black briefcase*
* Black Suit
* Black shoes

THIRD LOCATION (EMPTY PARK):
* Camera
* Tripod
* Battery
* Tape
* Character
* Lighting (Natural)
* Mobile phone
* Simcard
* Black Suit
* Black shoes
* Battery

We must make sure that we have all of the props ready for our film as we need to use them. If we do all of these things properly and get all of our equipment ready, we will hopefully have a successful opening sequence.
In order to make our film successful we will need to choose a good location, we also need to have good lighting as it will help when filming in darker scenes. The use of professional lighting in the drama studio added a good effect to the production on the whole, to placed the actor so that we cold not see his face but we could see his hand movements etc. We also must make sure that we have our camera set up and that the battery is full. We will need to ensure that the camera is tightly secured to the tripod in order to get good footage. The music is essential in our opening sequence as we need to create a thrilling mood in order to attract our audience

independent companies


Other independent companies such as Lion Gate entertainment has subsidiary studios such as Artisan Entertainment and Mandate Pictures.
Lion Gate is a Canadian company which was founded in the 1974 in Los Angeles. It then moved to Columbia. it is the most commercially successful independent film company. Its head quarters are based in North America.

Another popular independent company is Weinstein Company,which was founded in 10th march 2005 by Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Its headquarters are in New york city. They have released many films such as Stormbreaker, Thunderpants and Miss Potter
.

The Script.

The first shot that the film opens with the main character making the bomb. At this point we have used the lighting in such a way that we do not reveal the main characters face. This connotes that he has a hidden identity. The main character is wearing a casual shirt during the making of the bomb. There are several uses of tracking shots. The tracking shots used and done from several different angles such as from the front left to right, from the corners, left and right from the back. We used a variety of shots towards the end of making the bomb scene. The type of shots we used were medium high angles shots to give the audience a clear view of how he is making the bomb, also the suitcase is placed near him so when he finishes making the bomb he puts it into the suitcase and closes it.

The characters identity is revealed further here in the form of a businessman. The director plays about with the use of colour in order to emphasize and draw any focal points of certain bits for example at the beginning there is a strong use of lighting to show the making of the bomb. There is a strong use of lighting to show the making of the bomb. The next shot opens with the main actor in a suit and a briefcase in his hand walking in the city connoting that he is a businessman. As we use a medium shot of him walking we see the London eye is the background to show that it is in the heart of the city. Connotations show that this is a busy city are suggested through diegetic sound and the shots used of the London eye. There are also many people in the background to suggest that it is a busy area. The character is introduced as he walkes at a fast pace with the briefcase on his right hand held tight. The soundtrack emphasize his status and power. He is dressed in black. From his black shirt, tie suit and polished black shoes as it connotes dark mystery, also from our research we found that most villains are dressed in the colour black, holding a black suitcase, we made sure that the colour of the suitcase is black as once again we wanted to create enigma. He then walkes to a bench and sits down with a long shot of him leaving the suitcase on the bench and looking around as he walkes off.
The next shot is of the back of the suitcase as it is left there and the camera moves up to show the London eye in the background in the mis-en-secene. The following shot is taking from a high shot on a brigde. The camara is facing down and a low angle shot is taken of the actor walking past the brigde, Another shot is of him walking up the stairs. we decided to have a high angle shot as it emphases the amount of people that were around and it also makes the character fit in with the crowd as we didn't want him to stand out. There are many people walking up but we used the shot so that the main character is in the middle. we used cuts so that it looks more continuous. One he walks up the stairs we show a long shot of the character leaving the suitcase there and walking away. And the camara focuses on he suitcase with a close up so the audience attention goes on the suitcase which is placed on the ground.

The following shot is located at Wembley park station. we chose this because we wanted to have a shot outside a station. We use a low angle shot of the actor walking up the stairs of the station. we also used cuts to make the scene look continuous furthermore the reason we picked Wembley park in particular was because we wanted to show that we filmed in different parts of London not just the heart of London. We chose a station as it is a busy area as u will be able to see quite a few people walking up and down the stairs of the station. We made the actor fit in with the crowd as we didn’t want him to stand out at all. It is then followed by medium shot of the actor coming into the train and leaving the briefcase on the train facing upwards as he sits in an empty carriage. This shows that As he walks off there is an extreme close up of the suitcase followed by the camera tilting upwards as he leaves. It is tilted upwards so the audience can see that the train is moving and the briefcase has been left there.

The next shot cuts straight away to walking out of the train without a suitcase where the bomb was located in. The next part of the opening shots a scene created in editing with special effects as it appears in slow motion and is in a different location. It is set in an empty car park where a phone call has to be made. There is a good use of medium shots of the actor opening the gate of the empty car park. He takes his phone out and there is an extreme close shot of him dialling “999”. The first bit of dialogue is introduced which beings to narrate body language which the viewer may have missed. ‘he walks around while talking to the police, empty background with no one else visible in the mis-en-scene. This portrays a powerful and wise side to the character. Several use of cuts are used as he is speaking on the pone to the police and there are some uses of close ups to show that characters body language and facial expressions. The sound track becomes slower so the voice of the character can be heard clearly.

The instrumental soundtrack is far in the background and cannot be heard well. This creates suspense to the atmosphere. The shot slowly zooms into a close-up in which the audience can see the face of the character in detail with his identity revealed. Once finishing the call the character takes the sim card out of the phone and throwing it away. This is done in slow motion and done at a slower rate and emphasises a dramatic moment as he walks off. The final shot, a low angle, is zoomed in rapidly and has a use of an extreme close up of the simcard as he walkes away in slow motion as the sound track begins to play once again. The effect of zooming in and the music playing connotes the status and power of the character. The director plays about with the use of colour in order to emphasize and draw any focal points of certain bits for example at the beginning there is a strong use of lighting to show the making of the bomb followed by a normal days lighting where he places the bomb in different locations and finally at the end in the empty car park where the lighting is not so bright as it is in the evening where he makes the phone call to the police which engages the audience.

Example of a thriller movie Duplicity (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74-BFnfZLeY

other major film companies



Paramount pictures corporation is a major film distribution and is an American film industry that has produced many popular films. it is a subsidiary of Viacom and was founded in May 12 1912. its headquarters are in Hollywood,California. It is one of Americas oldest existing film studios. It serves world wide universally.
After 1930 paramount changed their logo.
Paramount has many subsidiary studios such as ;
Paramount pictures [which was previously owned by Universal Studios]
Paramount vantage
MTV Networks
MTV Films
Nickelodeon Movies
Comedy Central Films
Republic Pictures

Another Major film company is 'Dream works' which deals with animated films such as Shrek.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is a popular company. It is owned by Sony and also has many subsidiary labels such as Columbia Pictures,TriStar Pictures.
Sony Pictures have franchised many films through the years. Examples of films they have franchised is Stuart Little, Spiderman, Karate Kid. They were founded in 1987 as Columbia Pictures,it was renamed as Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991.

Another film company is NBC Universal which owned by General electric.this has many subsidiary studios as many others such as universal studios and focus features.

Thriller Terrorist Moive (Boy From Lebanon: Killer Kid)

The theme that we have used in our coursework is terrorism thriller. We used this as I is not a very common topic of do a thriller opening on and would be quite interesting to watch how it links. After doing some research I found a movie that is a terrorism thriller and came to the conclusion that thriller is normally under a suspenseful story and includes many sub genres which in our case is the theme of terrorism. Part of the research is an example of a terrorism based thriller movie called “Boy From Lebanon: Killer Kid”.


On a secluded militia camp, somewhere in Lebanon, a group of kids are trained to become assassins. One of them will have the honour of travelling to France where a high-profile target is to be eliminated. This is an example of an opening which presented its character representation in a way which gave the audience a feel to the personality of the character The scene starts off with a close up of the face of the main character which shows him facial experwssions. Followed by shots of him training to kill people. He is holding a gun to a mans throat. I find this very interesting the way it is very unexpected for a child to do such things. He being sent to the assassinate president.

Research Analysis On thriller Movie (The Dark knight)


While doing some research we also looked at some other openings to thriller movies. The opening to the movie the hark knight inspired us to look more closely at the way we represent the main character. In our opening to the thriller movie we made our main character wear black and that how he is represented as a businessman. By the way the character was dressed it gave the audience a brief idea of how the character is. The opening we looked at helped up with deciding the props for our opening. We specifically looked at moives which had a bit of suspense and therefore through of the analysing “The Dark Knight”.

The location is the first thing that is presented to the audience in the opening sequence, as the camera goes down over the city targeting a certain glass building. This is one of the main aspects of an opening sequence, to create the location, as this it gives the audience a sense of where the film will take place.There is a use of action which is created at the start of this film, as a gun is fired out of the building the camera was focusing on, smashing the window.The characters that are included in the opening sequence are then introduced. These are the villains in the film, and are instantly recognisable as are all wearing masks intending to be the Joker, including the real Joker who is one of the protagonist characters in the filmAs there is a medium shot zooming in the mask a car pulls over in the background. There is use of non diegetic sound while we are being told as the audience to focus on the mask. This is allowing the audience o know that the scene has commended. The scene than cuts to three men in a mask sitting inside a car they are all wearing a mask which connotes that they are doing some kind of fraud. As they get out of the car there is a medium shot of them running into a building. Many diegetic sounds are heard include the ticking of a clock which was helped the audience understand the tension and emphasis the suspense taking place in the scene.Dialogues in this scene is a key factor to help represent gender as it allows the audience to understand that the characters in the mis-en-scene are and dominating and powerful by the tone of their voice and the things they were talking about. They looked like they were involved in some kind of business fraud. They run in to the building with guns shooting everywhere. Facial expressions are a key factor throughout this sequence as it allows the audience to know the communications and interactions between all the characters.

The mis-en-scence shows the fright on peoples faces as they come in with guns. There are diegetic sounds of screaming in the background.The scene then immediately cuts to the two people in masks fixing a silent alarm on the building. There is a twist to the story in the begging as a man in the joker mask shoot another man of his type in a joker mask. This tries to add more tension and complication to the scene. Each of the jokers tries and kills each other as they want the money to themselves. This builds up the tension.One killing all the jokers the one man left takes off his mask and he is the real joker with his true identity. As he reveal himself to the man on the floor his facial expressions connote to us that he is in a shock to see that he is the real joker being the mask. The use of low angle shot connotes to use that he has a lot of power and is dominated. The facial expressions of the businessman connote to the audience the tension and worry which is about to come. The body language also allows the audience to judge what he is like. As the scene zooms in we are more focused on the costume and makeup. The real joker looks very similar to the mask. The lightening and colour used in the scene allow the audience to know the aspects they have to focus on .We are shown low key lighting on the joker.

Editing Is another important factor the director uses is continually editing and the shot reverse shot between the real joker and the business man allows the audience to understand the interaction and conversation occurring between the characters. We also see an eyeline shot of the business man trying to get the gun which he had dropped. This connotes that he has lost the one thing that helped him keep his power and authority.The costume of the joker is presented in quite unique way. He has a lot of makeup and there are many close-ups of the joker that are used. At this point the mis-en-scence shows us that the joker has more authority as he is looked at by a low angle shot to show he has power, authority and status.
From researching this opening sequence for The Dark Knight, I have learnt that immediately grabbing the attention and imagination of the audience is key
The most important thing an opening sequence should do is create enigmas, which are to be answered throughout the film. Enigmas are what keeps the audience motivated through the film, as questions that are created need to be answered.
 
© 2009 asmedia2010sam7. All Rights Reserved | Powered by Blogger
Constructed By Harrow College Media Department