Preliminary - Personal Review.

The preliminary was definately a learning curve. I learnt that keeping track of time is crucial and to always look back on the videos we have just recorded, in case there is something missing or an additional object that shouldnt be there.
The inital plot planning was alot easier, as we all had a chance to discuss our own idea and everyone listened to eachother and took what people said into consideration.
The editing was definately the hardest, and it enlightened me as to who was able to edit videos properly in my group. We were also introduced to Foley and realised if we really need sound effects we should do it ourselves as it sounds more authentic. I learnt how to make sound decrease and increase in volume which makes the peice very effective.

Art of the title.

This screengrab was from ArtoftheTitle.com which is a website specifically designed to analyse film openngs. I chose Captain America as the opening was very colourful and displayed what was going on within America at the time of WW11. It is quite an unconventianal opening and it showed war propaganda e.g. Uncle Sam and it also started with the director then the screenplay writer. Also all the people behind the scenes e.g. casting and music titles were before the actors, which is very unique. The Production and Distribution companies are second to last, they are normally at the start because without these companies investing in the film the film might not have been made, the Title is dead last which makes the opening look like a trailer.

Analysis of student film.

The student film i chose to analyse was VICTORIA.

Firstly, the sound complimented the piece perfectly as it was very sinister and eerie which made the clip effective. The non-diegetic sound started as the female character started lightly moving her arms which made it seem as the girl was a ballerina in a music box because it was very light and magical. When the girl falls unto the fall At the end there was quite an evil laugh which emphasised that the girl was evil.


I think the starting camera was very effective as we could see the girl's shadow as she was dancing which made it quite ghostly. There was a range of camera angles e.g. Close ups, wide shots and long shots.

Editing- the good thing about this video is that the title of the movie wasnt shown at the end which might make the opening look like a trailer it was shown conventionally in the middle. The cuts were very slow as the thriller is quite slow paced. I think the layering of two shots: shot of the music box and the girl dances adds mystery.

The mise en scene contributed to the thriller, the use of dolls, music boxes, lipsticks and photographs make the opening quite ambigous but the audience can maybe peice together that the rest of the film could have a connection to childhood.

To conclude i loved this opening as I could tell that it would be a psychological thriller because it created questions for the audience.

Personal Review on how the Priliminary went

Since this was our Priliminary, we tried to take it seriously as our real filming. I think that it went pretty well, we were organised and tried to communicate with each other so that no one in the group was confused.

Whilst filming, we had a few issues such as staying in the correct side of the room and to see if things were out of place. We kept rewatching what we had recorded to see if everything was going well, such as sound etc. We were also introduced to Foley sound effects. This was basically a way of recording everyday sounds for film-making and adding it to the video.

During our editing process, I learnt how to use the sound programme (Soundtrack Pro), to also increase and decrease it at some points. This was sometimes tricky, but once I got the hang of it, it went smoothly.
Editing in general was hard at some points; an example is the amount of close ups we had. We had to think creatively to see how everything would have fitted together.

Preliminary (personal review)

We had our problems when making and editing our video.

Comming up with the idea of what to actually base our video on was okay, we came up with the idea of a police investigation quite easily and we included a range of shots but when starting to film we cam upon a couple of errors. Such as

Annalysing previous students work (The paper trail)

The name of the video first caught my attention 'The paper trail' its tittle is quite obvious regarding what the plot is or is about, i thought the plot was based around a murder investigation and the key to unravel the mystery was through a trail of documents. After watching it i realised that the video showed allot more detail.

The beginning of the film is shot it a way to not reveal to the audience exactly what the person in the shot is making, this builds the questions up in the audiences minds and created suspense until the object is revealed near to the end of the video. The fact that they used origami as 'the paper trail' immediatly made the video more origional and creative.

Near to the begining of the video is a wide shot of a guy sitting down staring at a box that is placed infront of him, this shot is done very well as the audience is already guessing who ths guy is and what is inside the box.

The location that they used was good as it suited there plot along side the airy and mysterious music it enhanced this feeling of mystery in the middle of know where.

In this shot of the guys hand he is moving it as if the nerve in his hand are out of control this gives the thriller a phychotic turn along side the shot where his head is acting in the same way.

Mild airy sound is used in the background througout the video to build up tension and suspicion, at dramatic moments in the video louder sounds are used like in this shot he drops the origami animal onto the desk and its sound is projected over the origional airy sound.

Overall the thriller opening was good there range of camera shots where captured at the rite times and made the genre clear to the audience. The tittle of the video was shown at the end of the video which was the videos only major down fall, it made the video look as thought it was a trailer and almost every film tittle is shown near the begining of the opening.

Annalysing previous students work

The thriller opening i will be reviewing is 'The paper trail' filmed by previous media students. By doing this i will be able to see what to do and not what to do, to help me and my group do better when filming our thriller.
And by viewing a selection on thriller openings it will give an incite to what the examiner may be looking for and what different techniques are being used.

                                                           (VIDEO GOES HERE)

Preliminary

Ideas for opening

Our first idea was inspired by the Blaire Witch Project. We were planning on having a group of teenagers that have been dared to go to a forest and stay there for a night. Theres going to be clips of of a few teens telling us how they're feeling about the dare. After this, they sit around a camp fire and do a ritual to call 'spirits'. The whole thing goes wrong and the camera falls down, there's going to be a lot of screaming going on, and one person is gonna disappear. Whilst the camera is on the floor, it fuzzes and then we see a figure of a girl from far, each shot of her getting closer and closer, eventually stopping on her face. (24/01/12)

Our second idea was of a class room full of students talking to each other and all of a sudden the lights switch off; this will create suspicion amongst the audience. We then a get glimpse of a girl that seems to be possessed. Then the lights switch back on, everyone has disappeared (along with the possessed girl), apart from one girl (she is the main character in our thriller). She thinks its a joke, and walks out the room in an attempt to find her class mates. Once she exits the corridor, she sees the possessed girl at the end of the corridor. The main girl shakes her head as if she's in denial thats she's seeing this girl. The possessed girl disappears and the main girl chuckles. She then turns around and sees the possessed girl right infront of her.  She runs away but trips and falls down. She then sees blood on her hands and the reflection of the possessed girl in the window, she recognises that it is actually her. Then theres a zoom in in the reflection of the possessed girls face.
(24/01/12)

Our third idea is about a girl coming home and seeing that everything is not in its place (zooming in and out of objects). She walks around and feels a drought and pauses. She also starts hearing rustling noises of things moving around. She says 'hello?' and it echoes. She starts getting agitated by looking around and starts checking through her stuff. The music tempo increases when she's looking around. She then hears a thud, pause, thud, pause. The she hears her own breath, and the viewers hears her heart beat increasing through out the opening. She slowly turns around from where she is and the screen goes black. Then theres a flash of her sitting on a chair tied up, looking scruffy. (Have the ceiling light swinging slowly) This shot only last a quick second and ends at a black screen.
(24/01/12)

Our fourth idea is about a girl running down a long alley way with blood on her face and a bloody knife, she's visibly emotionally unstable as she is falling on her self and clinging to the walls. She enters her house and clambers upstairs, there is a layering shot of her writing a suicide note and of her preparing to hang herself. There is and extreme close up of her tying a knot around her neck and we end the scene with her kicking back the chair and her legs dangling.  Afterwards there'll be the time of her suicide and it wil rewind to before it happened. During the opening there will be a narrative of her reading her suicide note. (31/01/12)

Introduction to Soundtrack Pro

Soundtrack pro for me was very complex and i found it very hard to use. The reason i found it hard was because there are soo many different sounds on the program and also there were various techniques that could be used to alter a sound clip which is why i found it confusing. But as i spent time on it, i understood how to use it more.

This screen grab shows me experimenting with sound levels.

My influence on thrillers

Personally i enjoy thrillers and love to watch them, the intence excitment of the susspence that follows a thriller make it enjoyable for me and will attract me to it.

 

I like psychological thrillers the most out of all the sub genres to thrillers, this is because psychological thrillers create more of a story that the standard action thriller. psychology on a whole intersets me and making a psychological story in a movie attracts me immediatly. The way in which it is fillmed also draws me in because i like to figure out the plot whilst watching the movie and camera shots help with this but also help me understand what the character is feeling, there for making me apart of the film.

Audience for thrillers

Thrillers are stereotypically targeted at males generally of all ages from the age certificate in which the film is at, this maybe because there can be allot of violence and allot of action is involved and woman are targeted for more romantic genres.
But due to the sub genres within thrillers make it broader so both men and woman are able to find what they enjoy the most therefor boosting the rate in which women watch thrillers.

On a whole the audience for thrillers start from 15 and above as the age certificate because it would be hard to know exactly who watches thrillers as the Internet is open and accessible to all ages.

The structure of thriller openings

The main things that consist of thriller openings are

• music
• colour scheme
• camera shots/ viewpoints

all these create the tension and suspense of the thriller its self depending on the movie plot itself.

The music to a thriller opening usually starts of slow and deep then gradually the sounds builds up to create suspense and tension. If there is a narrative in the opening there will be a low music selection that is barely noticeable but still build up tension.

The colour scheme is usually dark to create mystery in the actors of seen selection, colours being grayish blues, greys and black.

The camera shots or viewpoints give us a scense of what is going on in the scene and what aspect it should have on us for example if a murder had taken place in a building the camera would move around the room slowly building up our suspicion to if the murderer is still in the building or not. But it can slo show us who not to strust or who the audience should be suspicious of and who is vunerable for example a hight camera shot looking down on a character can make that character look vunerable or scared

and a low camera shot looking up at a character can make the character look 'in charge' or of importance.      

The structure of thriller openings

For the structure of film opening's i looked at the movie 'Bullitt' on the artofthetittle sequence website.

In this screen shot of the movie it shows how the set up of the thriller is structured in order.

An overall of the opening shots give us a clear idea that it is a thriller as the colours used such as dark blue and black give the audience a sense of mystery. In the second square of the screen shot shows a low camera shot of three men, this gives the audience a sense of suspicion as the shot is very dark and we are just about able to see their faces. Along with the suspicious ware house where men are doing business the music played in the back grounds also backs up the thriller theme, as the instrumental starts of slow (almost like the instrumentals played in 'james bond') with a light tapping of the symbols on a drum kit and a soft constant sound of a saxophone and then builds up to a high tempoed sound of the saxophone there fore creating suspicion and tension.

( http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/04/04/bullitt/ )

intertaxuality (Pyscho Example)

Here is an example of how the movie thriller 'the step father' interprets a scene from the famous thriller 'psycho'.

After the man had been stabbed by his fiance in self defence the man stumbled backwards into the bath pulling down the shower curtain in the process.

In the film psycho the woman who had just been stabbed a number of times pulled down the shower curtain whist collapsing forward to her death.

The camera zooms out of the medium close up of the man after he falls into the bath and here shows a wide shot of him supposedly dead in the bath.

Again the camera zooms out from the close up of the woman like in the the movie 'the step father' therefoe showing an example of intertextuality.

Introduction to Live Type

At first live type was a bit complicated to use, but as I carried on it got easier and easier and I was more confident using it, there is a variety of fonts that compliment different genres.

This screengrabs shows me experimenting with different effects. 

Audience for Thrillers

Thrillers tend to attract audiences like teenagers/young adults. But are subsequently targeted at male viewers of the age 18+ due to the violence and horrific scenes. Thrillers are mainly psychological and can cause distress thats why it is targeted for older people. Audiences who tend to watch thrillers normally have a type of thriller they prefer, for instance action thrillers like 'The Taking Of Pelham 123' or psychological thrillers like 'Black Swan'.

Screen grabs of Arlington Road

This was when we started editing, and putting in text.

This was a shot of the production company.

We also did a screen shot of one of the actors.

The title of the film. 

This also shows the music producer. We improvised on the names. 

Preliminary - Camera shots

This was when we were setting up the camera.

We then tried setting up the tripod in our 'interrogation' room.

Trying to get the tripod in position, as well as the angle too.

This was us when we were filming our preliminary. 

This was when we paused to reconsider our shots.

This was when we did the high angle over the shoulder shot.

Animatic Preliminary

This is our animated story board that we have done in lesson. We used Final Cut Pro to edit and change it into an animation.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality (in the film world) is when scenes from a previous movie is interpreted in another movie, and this can be used for all genres, for example scary movie is known for to overly use intertextuality as this is the essence of the film, this movie used scenes from 'The sixth scene'   such as the line 'i see dead people' and makes into a comedy.

But a good example of intextuality would be the

famous shower scene from 1960's film 'psycho'.

Safety Tutorial

In our lesson about health and safety we were introduced to the equipment that we will be using when we start filming, how we use them and how to be safe with the equipment.

Firstly we were introduced to the video camera and its functions, this included how to turn on the device and you do this by flicking a switch on the left hand side which then goes red to alert us that it is on. Then we were shown how to zoom (which wasn't highly recermended) and we also learned how to focus and unfocus which may be useful in the future. In addition we were shown how to attach the battery to the back of the camera and how to carfully remove it.

We were then taught how to insert the memory card into the video camera and where this slot was located, on the left hand side of the camera there are two lots named 'A' and 'B' either slot is accepted, once the memory card has been successfully injected a green light appears indicating that the camera has successfully read the card. When ejecting the memory card you have to push it in to make it spring back out.

Thirdly we were shown how to set up the tripod, this included how to extend the legs and keep them in place and also how to attach the camera to the tripod and secure it on and in the position needed, this will help us for a more accurate and stable filming when filming out thriller opening. For me this was very much familiar as i own a tripod and a camera this Will benefit our group as i am experienced.

Finally we were taught how to keep the equiptment safe for example if we are filming in the rain a fairly big unbrella big enough to cover the camera whilste filming should be covering the camera whilste filming. Also to prevent the equiptment being stolen and to keep it protected they should be sealed in the cases provided (which are also waterproof) and just in case, the camera can be placed in a big enough personal bag.In addition the camera settings should be set to 'video' to ensure that the footage made will upload.

Art Of the Tittle

In this screen shot of the movie 300, you can clearly see the conventions of a film opening by the 9 captures that consist of its opening. 300 is a goury raged war film about an army of 300 men, the way in which the tittle of the movie is written relates to the genre and story line of the movie, it is shown in a deep red colour which is also shown to be splatered around it, in addition the way the 3 is shown looks like the gash or movement of a sward. This shows to the audience that the movie is violent and consists of death as the black background can show this.

Production and distribution companies are both shown before any other tittles (production being first) this follows by the tittle of the movie and then important actors and other relervant information.

Film Genre and the Cinema in 2010

In 2010 around 38 Suspense films were released; which grossed £42 million. On the other hand, Action/Adventure grossed a total of £265 million. The most popular family genre in 2010 was Animation. This is may be caused by the amount of children that like it, due to the humour and it being family friendly. People of all ages can refer to it, since its comedy and easy to understand. The suspense genre did not gross as much as some of the other genres such as animation is because suspense films have a certain target audience, mainly adults and is not family centered. Suspense films' popularity has gone down in sense of Hollywood movies, since what they've been making is more Fantasy and Action. The reason to this may be that there are more viewers for the Fantasy and Action genre's since they have a wider audience range.

Analysis of some Sub Genre's by TV poster and DVD covers (Genre+Audience)

In the Others' film, the genre is Supernatural Thriller. We can see this by just looking at the the poster too. There's the main character who seems to be in shock over something and is looking over at something that we can not see. The black background fading into the actress' face makes it look supernatural too. The expression she has on her seems scary and frightened. The target audience for this film seems to be over 12's.

This film, Dream House is Supernatural/Psychological Thriller, by looking at the poster. We can see that there's two girls, one that looks creepy when she's looking over her shoulder at us. Another thing is that the 3 main characters seem to be trapped in some type of door knob with the different stressed expressions. The target audience for this seem to be above 12's. 

The film Tower Heist is a Comedy Thriller that stars Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy; they are famous actors that star in comedy films, we can also immediately know that this film will have comedy in it. The poster shows us a group of actors that are on a slanted building. The little dog wearing red also adds a comedic feel to it. Since the video has a certificate of 12A, its suitable for a wide range of audience. 

Film Audiences

Film audiences varies from genre to genre. Such as Animation genre's are directed at children, Horror is directed at 15 and above's and Action being more towards teens. Sometimes, some film audiences may also be directed to a gender too, i.e. some would say that the Action genre is more for the male gender since they love the speed to it.

Thrillers on the other hand have a wide range of audiences. Since there are many thriller sub genre's, we can't specifically put a audience for it. However, some do have target audiences such as Romantic Thrillers, are directed at 15 and above's, for the love and thrilling sense to it. Young adults are mainly interested in the Thriller genre since they love to be scared and surprised at what they watch.

Word Cloud.

Intertextuality, can be said in many different ways.

Intertextuality example.

Scary Movie is a spoof horror film, which parodies other horror films in that time. Scary Movie is a saga so i have chosen to analyse, Scary Movie 3.

The film starts with, a wide shot of a surbuban house when its raining. There are two female characters, Katie and Beckie and they are watching TV. They talk about a cursed videotape, when after you watch it, the phone rings whith a voice saying 'Seven days' referencing The Ring (above).

There is also a scene in Scary Movie 3 that parodies the film Signs, the reverends wife is pinned against a tree and a car and doesnt have much time left to live.

There is also a scene in this movie where the main characters are at a rap battle which was 'borrowed' from the movie 8 Mile starring Eminem.


To conclude even though Scary Movie is a parody and makes fun of horror films it also references different genre films which makes Scary Movie 3 very comical and quite silly.