Storyboards

Progress In today's lesson

In todays lesson we focused on getting all of our story boards drawn up and to geth the dialogue-sound-camera movement boxes completed aswell. In this lesson i finished drawing up the story boards with the help of Jemma and Elise. We needed to add in two more shots for our story board and it was hard to think of what we could put into our film after already planning it. Fortunately we come up with two idea's so we drawed them both in.
Also in today's lesson we looked at what sort of music we was going to include in our opening sequence, the script and also the costumes and props. Elise worked on making the script while Jemma worked on figuring out what clothes we sould be wearing and I looked on the internet to find some music for the film. The music that I found was 'Cellos Three Chords' which is a main theme music as it sounds very eerie and could set the atmosphere for our film, 'Breath of Death', so we could use this when the girl appears behind the couple and also 'RBH Household Drip 02' for the drips of blood we see in the flash backs.

I got my sounds from www.freesounds.org.

Thriller Shot List

In fridays lessons, myself, Jemma and Elise took this time to focus on what type of shots that we will be including in our opening sequence. These are the following shots that we come up with:
- Images of Newspapers
- Close up of the words on the newspapers, for example a headline saying 'TEENAGE GIRL MURDERED'
- Close up of the girls different body parts whilst laying on the bed
- Establishing shot of the new family walking into the house then mid shots of them walking around the house
- The title sequence mixing in with the action

The next thing that we come up within our group was the title for the film. We decided to call the film 'Inner Fear'. The reason why we decided to make this our title was because all the fear from the little girl who had died will be coming from inside the house.
After that we decided to work on the order that our opening sequence will follow.
The first thing that will appear on the screen will be totall darkness, then 10 quick layering images will appear of newspapers. Then the screen will go black again and some titles will appear then we will have a shot of the new couple walking into the house. After that, our names will come on the screen followed by another 10 quick shots of newspapers but this time it will be close ups of the different headlines about the girl that died in the house. The title 'Inner Fear' will then come on the screen followed by short sequences of the couple walking around the house in different bedrooms. When we film in the bedroom, there will be a flash back of how the girl dies, screaming, then the little girl screaming will zoom in on the girls mouth then it swaps to the woman screaming. Then we will have a shot of the couple cuddling at the top window and a ciloette walks past behind them. Then we have a shot of a newspaper saying a young couple have died and no evidence has been found.

As we started to work on our final ideas we knew that the idea with the flashing moving images of the newspapers coming on the screen with the headings would not actually work as we did not know how to produce this idea. Because of this I come up with a new idea of having flashbacks of a girl that was recently murdered appearing on the screen in the house where a couple were being shown around by an estate agent. The whole reason why I liked this idea was because it would be easier to produce and it still would come out with a great effect.

We also worked on what characters we will be acting as.

Little Girl Murdered: Elise
The Couple: Nathan and Jemma
Estate Agent: Elise's Dad

Planning our opening sequence of a thriller

I was put in a group to do our practical side of our AS Media work. My group is myself, Gemma and Elise. Elise was not in school today so we had to plan with out her. So far we have come up with the outline of the story line and the locations that we will be using.
Location: A House

We come up with our idea based on a recent film that i have watched called 'Paranormal Activity'. This film is about a demon that haunts a woman since she was about 7 years old. It has been getting to her so much that the demon gets inside her body and makes her attack her boyfriend. Our story line is based around this idea.
A teenage girl was killed by a phyco when she was sleeping. Her family felt uncomfortable living in that area so they left to another part of England whilst a new family moved in to their old home. In the opening sequence we planned that we will have a flash back showing newspapers of the girl saying 'MURDERED', also pictures of her house with police tape around it and also close ups of the girls body on the bed. This action mixes in with the opening credits and is also mixed in with the eerie music that we will be playing. After this finishes, the film will start with a blank screen saying December 21st 2009 with the new family moving in.

Media Thriller Questionnaire's

Are you male or female? Male

How old are you? 21

What thriller movies do you like? Modern Day

What do you like most about thriller films? Tension

Do you like to watch films in black and white? No

How do you think a good thriller should start off? Flashbacks

How often do you watch a thriller? 2 x a month

What is your best thriller film? Sixth Sense

Are you male or female? Female

How old are you? 40

What thriller movies do you like? Don't Mind

What do you like most about thriller films? Violence

Do you watch films in black and white? No

How do you think a good thriller should start off? Internal Monologue

How often do you watch a thriller film? 4 x a month

What is your best thriller film? Seven

2 photo's of possible locations

The reason why the house will be a good location for us is because this house looks very neat and tidy but when you get inside the house it is a different atmosphere. Very tense and eerie, something wrong about it. This location would relate to the title as well.

This dark basement would be a fairly decent place for us to film. This could be where the girl gets murdered if we was to slightly change our story line to the girl dying in the basement but at the moment our story line is the girl was killed in her bedroom.

Title Sequence

In our title sequence we are going to mix in parts of the opening sequence within the titles. We are planing to have flashing images of newspaper headlines saying 'GIRL MURDERED' and pictures of her on the newspaper within the opening titles. The reason for this is because it will make our opening sequence engaging and not boring. When the title's appear itself, it will be in a strange font that we have not worked out yet, and on a plain jet black background. The title's will appear out of the background. When the title of the film comes up, 'Inner Fear', we are going to have the picture of the house and the words 'Inner Fear' dissolving into the house to show that the fear is inside the house.

Conventions of the thriller genre

In the last lesson I also learnt some conventions of a thriller:
-Bed of music to build up tension
-Jumpy Parts
-Shock
-Actors
-Victims
-Suspense
-The Dark
-Fight Scenes/Chase
-Twists
-Unexpected Activities
-Violence
-Makes you ask questions
-Eerie Music
-Screams
-Mist/Fog
-A person with 2 split personalities

Conventions of an opening sequence

Any thriller opening sequence always has similar techniques to others. A thriller's opening sequence includes this following things to make it a successful good thriller film:
- Eerie music
-Alot of close ups
-Hide crucial information from the audience
-Could include flashbacks
-Set the opening sequence in reverse order
-Twists
-Mystery's
-Something unexpected

Brick Opening Sequence

We can tell by the film Birck, by Johnson is a thriller film within the opening two mitues by the conventions of a thriller film used. One of the main things that we see in every opening sequence of a thriller film is the use of close ups. We see loads of close ups because they want us, the audience, to be asking questions about what is going on. By showing us loads of close ups, they are hiding crucial information from us. This is one technique that all thriller films use.In this film it made us ask questions such as:
-How does the girl die?
-Why are they there?
-Who is the boy to the girl?

Another convention used to show to us that this film is a thriller is through the eerie music being played. It sounds like a stringy guitar being played as if it was a western film.

(Sixth Sense) How obvious isit from the opening sequence that this is a thriller?

You can tell that the sixth sense belongs to the thriller catorgory by the use of many conventions used in a thriller opening sequence.
The first convention that we notice is through the sound. We have long opening credits with eerie music being played over the top of them. We suggested that by having long opening credits with this type of music being played over the top, it sort of sets the scene. The audience can get ingaged and get in the zone and the right frame of mind to watch this film. The music mixed in with the titles mix together well to build up tension to get a great atmosphere within the audience.
The shot types in the opening sequence of 'The Sixth Sense' are conducted very well. The reason for this is because they use voyeuristic shots to give off a sense of some one is watching her. The camera is positioned behind the wine rack and she walks straight over towards it. By the producers using this technique it almost makes the audience want to get involved. To tell her to get out because it seems like some one is watching her from the position that we are watching the film.

The mise-en-scene used in this sequence brings off a sense that something wierd is going on down in the basement. By the fact that cob-webs are layered all over the benches and they look rusty shows to us that the basement has not been used in a long time. It is only used to store things and to hold the wine. Also, in the background of the shot we see that the door behind her is half open. This makes us as the audience feel uneased as we don't know what is in that room.
In the opening sequence like any other typical thriller film, it makes us ask questions. The main question that I would ask is why is she getting cold down in the basement? Isit generally cold or is something in the room making her cold? Also, the use of sound makes me ask questions. The sound of they keys rattling and the sound of some one walking on broken glass would freak anybody out when you do not see any other presense in the room. So the question that I would ask about that is where are them noises coming from?

Cape Fear

Yet again, like any other thriller film, it will make you ask questions because you feel a little bit confused. Even though this film was made years ago, it still has the same conventions.

One of these conventions are is the music being played over the shots of the man walking through the town, into the hotel. The music sounds like organs being played. This type of music builds up tension because it sounds very dramatic.

Cape Fear makes you ask questions. The five questions that I noted down which I would like to know are:
1.Who is the man walking?
2.Where abouts is he?
3.How comes the colour changes from black and white into colour?
4.How did he get into prison?
5.What is meant by the title of the film 'Cape Fear'?

The following camera shots are being used through out the opening sequence of this film:
-Establishing shot over the prison
-Long shots of different people walking through the town
-Panning shot following the man
-The man smoking the cigar (close up)

In the newer cape fear introduction there is a main part what I liked which looked very spooky and eerie. The part is at the end of the opening sequence where the colour of the eyes change. I have tried adding this into my opening sequence when Elise is brushing the dolls hair.

Wallender Opening Sequence

In this lesson we concentrated on looking at another Thriller genre but in this case it was related to a programme called Wallender on BBC. Even though it is a programme and not a film, it still fits into the Thriller genre and still consists of the techniques and the conventions used in a thriller film.At the start of the programme we see a quick sharp shot of darkness. A blank screen. Just by the producers doing this, it makes us feel uneasy as we can not see what is going on but we could hear sound coming from the screen. On the screen at this time we hear rattling noises as if some one is trapped in, this makes us feel unsure and nervous. You can tell that I was unsure because when we saw the action, it was a helicopter flying over the sea. The sounds that I was hearing was the wind blowing in the background making a impact noise and then it comes to a stand still when we see the girls.
When we see the two girls, they looked as if they have just done something very serious. You can tell this by their faces and the deep panting noises they were producing. Also, the rock and rolla dress sense is a bit wierd, this gives off an impression of a bit loose in the head. Furthermore, the girl holding the knife had a red streak in her hair. This could symbolise that she is hot headed, rebellious and is a fiery character.

When watching the opening sequence of this programme it made me ask questions again, like what would happen in any other opening sequence of a thriller. The questions that I was thinking to myself were ; Where is this place? Where are they walking? Who are they?Blood in the car so how did it get there? What happened?

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly is again like Double Identity and Cape Fear another old fashioned thriller film. As it is a old fashioned thriller film, the techniques used were very basic and that includes filming the film in black and white. Modern day thriller films are not filmed in black and white but in some parts of the film, for example a flashback, black and white screenings are used to create a effect. Another thing that is interesting about this film is that the opening credits are shown by falling down the screen but backwards. I liked this technique because i had to catch on to it to understand it. Another convention that is used well in this basic thriller film is the hyperbolic sounds. We can hear this when the woman is deep breathing really loudly and when she is running. The camera shots where simple as well as the shots that they mainly used were tracking shots and close up's of the girl running and on her feet. With the film being filmed at night and the car travelling on a dark road with the forthcoming roads were hidden, the front lights of the car showed the road before them but this builds up tension as we dont no what could be in the distance. The music also creates a effect for this.

Double Identity

Double Identity and Kiss Me Deadly are very similar and is an old style thriller film. Unlike the latest thriller opening sequences that we have watched, Double Identity is a basic black and white film that has a simple but effect bed of music that builds and creates tension.Unlike any other thriller we don't actually get a clue of what the film could be about. The whole opening sequence is the credit's so we have got no idea of the type of characters that are involved or the story line. Normally we get close ups of something suspicous and not right but we just see the opening credits and a establishing shot of a street and a rail-way station. The only convention of a thriller film that fits in with this opening sequence is that it is at night time which is dark and the bed of music that builds up tension.

Memento, 15

Memento is a thriller film which includes all of the conventions of a typical thriller film. These things are the use of cinematography, sound, editing and mise-en-scene. Another crucial element that a thriller film must do is make us ask questions when we are watching the opening sequence. They hide information.

Cinematography:

• Close ups of the crime scene to hide information of the surroundings
• Close ups of the weapons
• In the opening sequence the main types of shots that we see are close ups. The reason for this is because they want to make the audience ask questions about what is going on.
• Camera shots vary so that the audience are intrigued into the movie and what to know more.

Sound:

• Eerie music being played within the titles
• The bed of music in the background builds up tension to get the audience engaged into the screen
• The music that we here being played gives off a sense of sadness
• Hyperbolic sounds

Editing:

• We are shown the opening sequence in reverse order
• This is typical of most thrillers because they try and confuse and twist the minds of the audience
• Black out when the man gets shot. Unexpected.

Mise-en-scene:

• The picture that the man is holding is slightly tilted
• This could represent that something is not right
• This could then relate to the person holding the picture that something could not be right about him and later on in the film we find out that he has an illness
• The blood dripping down the walls shows violence

What questions does the opening sequence make us ask?

1. There is blood on the floor but how did it get there?
2. What the picture is that he is holding?
3. Why is the opening sequence in reverse order?
4. Why did he kill the man?
5. Who is he?

Film Synopsis

The name of my film will be called Inner Fear. The reason why it will be called this is because all of the stuff that happens in this film to do with the girl that was murdered in this house, the event will take place inside the house.
The film is about a girl who was murdered inside her house by 3 robbers who first of all raped her and then killed her. In the opening sequence we see a happily married couple looking to buy the house that the girl was murdered in so we see some flash backs of the girl as a ghost inside her house brushing a dolls house which makes it look a bit freaky and eerie. After these shots of her brushing the dolls hair it cuts to the couple getting shown around the house. The main part of the film is that the girl that was murdered is trying to leave messages around the house to get the couple that moved in to get in contact to her family who moved out as they did not want to live in the house where there daughter got murdered. The couple witness these signs that the girl has left and calls in a psychic doctor to help them out with there experiences. The doctor realises that all the messages that have been left are for them to try and contact the girls family so the daughter can get back in contact with them.
After a lot of hard work looking up where they live the couple and the doctor find them and helps them get in contact together and the girl stops leaving the messages in the house.

Our task ; and conventions of a thriller

In our last lesson, we learnt about a new brief. This brief was, 'The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of 2 minutes'.

We then got given a 'AS Media mark scheme' which tells us what this brief will be marked on and the different levels. We were told that our work must be completed up to the standard of level 4 which was the highest level and consists of execelence in our; Research and Planning, Practical work and our Evaluation.

After we got given that, we sat down as a class and thought about the conventions of a thriller. I was getting mixed up between the two different genres thriller and horor so we sat down as a whole class and discussed what the differences where between them.
One big difference between a thriller and a horror is the violent graphical scenes. You can see the horific bloody scenes when people get murdered in a horror but in a thriller, it is not as graphical. It is more about the tension and suspense.

Understanding of the task set

The task that we got set was to make a short couple of minutes of a movie making it look realistic as possible. In this film we had to include the following editing techniques of continuity editing: Match on action
180 degree rule
Eyeline Match
Shot Reverse Shot

In our film, it must include all of the techniques above and it could not break the rules by not following the techniques.

Planning Process

As I was away for 2 weeks the class finished planning what kind of ideas what they wanted in their shots so I was behind on that. Fortunately for me, my partner Jacob, planned a good story board of how he wanted his shots to go. When I come back, we did not need to improve Jacob's story boards as they were already planned out to a high quility. Because of this, it made our filming go alot easier as our ideas were spot on.

Reflections on editing

Our editing process went very well due to the fact that myself and Jacob already knew roughly how to work i movie. We did not finish the editing during class time so Jacob voluntered to continue edit our movie, as we only had a little more to do so he done it through his lunch time. As we went through the different shots, we saw that things needed changing to make it realistic as possible. We cut parts of the shots out to make the previous shot and the next shot blend in together. On the last day of editing it was quite hard to use i movies as it first of all did not play our movie and then it kept on freezing and skipping parts out. After a while it went back to usual but for half of the lesson it was playing up.

Reflections on filming

The filming process for us was alright. We only had 2 lessons to get as much as we could get done and we done well because we finished the filming during the second lesson so we started on the editing half way during the second lesson. For our shots we needed two locations, a hall way and a class room. The hall way that we filmed our first shot was right outside the class room and there was minimum distruption and then we found a class room along the corridoor so it was okay. As we did not get to finish the filming during the first lesson, we did not know if the class room that we used was going to be used for the next lesson but fortunately for us it was not so we got to use the same room again. Overall the filming went alright.

WWW and EBI

WWW:
Overall I think that Jacob and I worked well together. As this was my first lesson back and I didn't know what to do Ms Lynch and Jacob both explained the task to me and I understood it straight away. After the explanation, Jacob had already drawn up his idea's of what we was going to include in our film which I thought was very good as then we could just go and film it. Also, we only had two people in our group and we worked out ways on how to make our filming work. The reason for this is because in our idea's, we needed two people acting at the same time in nearly all the shots. In this case we did not have any body to film so we had to put the camera in a position in which we could film a good shot.

EBI:
The main even better if in this task was if we had more than two people in our group. The reason why it would be better is because if we had three or four people like all of the other groups, we would have come up with more idea's with the shots and also if it did not look right (like the acting did not look real), then we would have more chances of spotting it, if some one was filming it and looking at it from a different angle.

Understanding of continuity editing

Continuity editing is used all through out television programmes and films. The reason for this is because when the shot changes they edit it to make it look as smoothe and realistic as possible. There are 5 main points of continuity editing. They are 180 degree rule, master shot, shot reverse shot and eyeline match.

180 Degree Rule: This is where two people are being filmed and the camera man protends that there is a invisible line down the centre so he can't go past it. He can only go past it if it is a panning shot otherwise if he goes over the line it is called a reverse angle.

Master Shot: This shot is used most of the time if there is a change of location. The reason for this is because the audience can now see the basic information and the location of where the shot is set and the surroundings outer the focus of the action.

Shot Reverse Shot: This is a common shot when two people are talking to eachother. This is when the camera man does a over the shoulder shot when a character is talking to another character. This is used so that we can see both sides of the conversation and who the people are that are talking.

Eyeline Match: This is used to get the audience engaged to the screen because it makes the audience see the same as what the on screen character is seeing. The character would normally be looking off the screen and then there would be a quick cut to show what he/she is looking at.

Match on Action: This is where the camera when filming in one place, see's the same shot as another camera filming in a different place. For example, if a man was opening a door we would get a shot of him opening and pushing it open slightly from behind. Then the other camera would be in front of the door and would continue shooting from the place the first camera got to, to make the shot look realistic.

Personal Evaluation

Over the past 2 weeks I have been away so i did not have a clue of what we was doing. When I got back I was put into a pair with Jacob to start on our preliminary task. In previous media lessons when I was away, Jacob was in the lessons and started to work on his own story boards and ideas. This made it easier when we got paired up as everything was already sorted all we had to do was film the actuall piece. We was given 2 lessons to do as much as we could, so we finished the filming and got a quater of the way through on the editing. It was a bit difficult on how we put our filming together as we only had two people in our group and we needed two people to act so we needed to set the camera in positions that we though could see the action that we was doing. Overall i feel that this preliminary task went very well. Considering it only took us about 3 lessons to complete the whole thing, including filming and editing i think that we done a good job. After the editing, our film looked so realistic so i think that we accomplished the task aimed at us.