Planning - The narration for our idea: The Run

Our idea has been inspired from the film train-spotting.

Here is are narration to go on top of our footage:

"Sometimes in life you have to run. Not for fear but for life. Running away from your deepest fear is a key success. You see once you’ve done something bad and you have escaped from it you have your life back again, and that’s what I am doing. I’m running. That’s my fella over there, well, was my fella I found out that he cheated on me with my best friend. We were arguing, and arguing… and it so out of control. I just couldn’t believe it, my heart was breaking I felt like he tore it from my chest. He destroyed everything (that) we ever had or (what we) was going to have within a matter of minutes and he didn’t even think twice about and he didn’t even think twice either. How did he think that would make me feel? The person who loved him so much it actually hurts and I’m telling you it did hurt. So I pushed him, I pushed him so hard against that wall, to teach him a lesson to make him pay, to think about what he did, what he did to me! But I pushed too hard, he didn’t open his eyes, he didn’t move his lips, he was so still, so silent, so peaceful, (I’m shouting for help, no one can hear me!)… But he deserved  (LAUGH: HA) look what he did to me, look what she did tom me (ANGRY ARGH!!!) that’s why she is going to pay too, wait and till I find her (SHOUT ARGH) Just wait, she’ll see, she won’t know what’s hit her (UNCONTROLLABLE LAUGHTER – CRAZY LADY) But till know I’m alone, so I’ve got to run, for my life, that’s all I have now, all I have to live for, myself … and revenge!"

IDEA

CATWOMAN

I have watched catwoman an the film story line was very good. Although  catwoman is an action fantasy film the concept of a cat giving her one of the cats 9 lives for her life when she dies is a very good idea which could be turned into a thriller.

She could be a very good villain in a thriller film despite her reputation for being a good character in all films. This could be a change and make her into a villain. - she dies or is in the jaws of death - cat comes and gives her one of the cats lives in order to save 'catwomans' life.

Extra Blog

Epic Movie: is a 2007 American parody film directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer and produced by Paul Schiff. It was made in a similar style to Date Movie, Friedberg and Seltzer's previous film. The film mostly references The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Tim Burton's version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This film therefore uses intertextuality as it 'borrows' things from other films, to make it as successful as they can.

This is the Trailer of the movie

This is the Movie poster

Just by looking at this poster you can see how this film uses intertextuality.

- Captain Jack sparrow - this character is from pirates of the caribbean

- Willy Wonka from Charlie and the chocolate Factory

- ice queen and the Thorn from Narnia

- Superman

These are all characters that have been 'Borrowed' from other films to make this film a success.

PLANNING THRILLER IDEA

Our group was watching the train-spotting opening for inspiration and we came up with this idea. The scene starts off with a man running away, his narrating on the choices his made and laughing at the bad one suggesting he has a sadistic nature. It freezes on his face which has an evil smile on his face with blood coming out of his lips  an introduces himself. It then goes on to a flashback where it shows him having an argument with a women, theres no sound, then it goes back to the running then another flashback with the violence happening, running again then the last flashback where the wife slides against the wall with a lifeless expression on her face. the runner then ends his monologue and then jumps where everything freezes. then a white flash. We decided to call the film:THE RUN.

target audience

As i have blogged before as our target audience should be 15+ it is vital to also think about other age ranges, because different people are interested in different things so we also have to think about the genders (male + female) - also let it be family based as well so you can watch this with your family without any hesitation, we also need to think about certain scenes that need to be in a thriller and nothing explicit tha children can not watch.


In order for the thriller film to be a hit the trailer and the advertising of the film need to be eye catching and hooking the audience onto the trailer - leaving them wanting to know more, to get them interested.


In order to do so we need to think of a good plot that isn't just for the UK it should be international - watched world wide so locations should be continental but filmed in london (e.g asian - BRICK LANE, china - CHINA TOWN, Black background - BRIXTON, VAUXHALL , TOTTENHAM) 


this should also be appealing to all ethnic minority so, we should think about the concept of the thriller because what is appropriate in UK may not be appropriate in saudi Arabia.


As i have blogged before i would want the main character to be a girl because men are over rated  - this female villain would attract boys (opposite sex) to the film - but however we would want the victim to be a boy and he will also attract the opposite sex (girls) to watch the film.

another reply to dans comment

4. 3. 2. 1.

another way we could use the influences off the film 4 3 2 1 is that we could use rapid fast editing in our film.

show clips of our 3 main characters, panning shots of the rich posh girl, rapid over the shoulder shot for the hood rat and a normal establishing shot for the normal student. 

with load soundings of diegetic and non diegetic sounds we show the hidden valuables.

reply to dans comment.

CHARACTER

a reply to dans comment on my idea of the vilain being a female instead of a male because males are always either portrayed as the hero or the villain either way hes the main character, so, to stand out i thought we should have the man as the victim and the woman as the villain instead of a damsel in distress (breaking the traditions).

The female should look like she is a bit evil.

poison ivy
female wearing dark colours.

makeup done will show that she is evil, her clothing will also show how much of a villain the female character is.

close up of a villain makeup 

louise fletcher
you can see the evil in her eyes 

such as poison ivy - her name also shows how much of a bad villain she is because of her name 'poison' another term as a killer or intoxication, poison ivy is a plant like a venus plant trap.




not just how she looks and her character, but also the colour she wears, green, dark green, black, with the classic black, red, orange, blonde hair. attention to detailed make up with scorning sharp eyes.

she looks evil - no doubt about that.

Our Group's planning for Thriller Opening sequence

A mind map piecing together some details of an idea we came up with for our opening Thriller sequence

Ideas for our opening Thriller sequence,

And so on..

Rochelle jotting down some of our other ideas

some of our second idea

our official idea plan idea

IDEA

I have come up with another idea for our thriller film. 

The idea is that there should be a  3 main characters that are TOTALLY different from each other, who end up together to return an hidden initiative or an object or something valuable to others but not to the 3 characters in this trailer. 

(could be diamonds, money, maybe something thats more from the olden days like scripts and scrolls or maybe ancient 5 piece stones which are scattered in different locations and which unknowingly goes to them 3 individuals)

1. A 'rich' posh girl who isn't aware of what the real world is like shes unaware of anything of the 'dark side' of the world, this characters would revolves around shoes hand bags 'daddies little princes' and who is spoilt.

2. A 'hood rat' - (a boy from one of them bad backgrounds whos involved with things he shouldn't be.)

3. A normal school girl/boy (could be any) who's stuck in the middle of all of this. she/he isn't spoilt, isnt from a bad background. 

In all films not just thrillers there is always a hero/ heroin and there is always a damsel in distress, there is also another character that does not like the damsel if the character is a girl and  character who does not like the hero if he is a boy.

the subgenre should be an action thriller - which the target audience should be 15 plus because i suggest it should be for young people who would understand the concept of the film and who will enjoy action (mainly targetting young boys and girls.) 

PRELiM EVALUATiON!

Evaluation of the prelim, i will be evaluating on the point of LESS SMILING to make our prelim short clip more effective and seemless. 

LESS SMILING

our prelim was very good, from the idea/concept of the scene to the camera angles, editing and acting. However, if christina and rochelle (our actors) could smile less, it would have been better and more realistic. 

The editing was excellent ! (done by hasan) with the fast cuts and the normal pace cuts. hes camera skills were also very good too, it was appealing to the eye, hes shot reverse shots and hes panning up rochelles form head to toe shows that we have a good understanding of intertexuality.

hes skills of over the shoulder was also very good and effective.

we also had close ups which closely show what our character rochelle was doing.

our prelim was good but it has a few flaws which could be retained and improved for our real film.

Evaluation of a Prelim

During last week's lessons our group had to film a prelim, this gave us experience and practise when filming an opening sequence to a Thriller. 
I was quite impressed with the way our grouped worked in completing this task, the editing, mise en scene and camera angels were used quite well Making the sequence look as realistic as possible. 
However there is something i believe we could improve on when filming our real thriller opening sequence, from looking at our prelim. Like for example using a Tripod more when filming. This is because when filming our prelim the sequence starts with a camera movement going up along Rochelle's body, this is rather shaky and wobbly compared to the dead straight movement we wanted. By using a tripod we could have achieved the right camera movement in order to make our Prelim as successful and realistic as possible.
Therefore from making our prelim we have learned what we need to do in order to improve in our filming which could be extremely beneficial to our real piece.

180 degree rule

During the filming of our prelim we learnt about the 180 degree rule. The 180 rule is a basic guideline in filmmaking which states that the elements in a film should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera goes over the imaginary axis it is called crossing the line and the new shot is called a reverse shot. 

All coverage should be shot from one side of the imaginary axis because the audience makes a mental note of the actors position in that scene and if the camera crosses the line it temporarily disrupts the audiences viewing experience because they have to re-establish the positions of all the actors/actress in the scene. 

Analysis of a student thriller

The student thriller i have chosen to Analyse is the one called "The List". I think its very good and it successfully builds up tension with many aspects such as music and mise- en-scene.
Mise en scene is used to build up tension in this scene. For example there is mixed lighting throughout the scene, some parts are dark some are light, this connotes good and evil and because its at the beginning of the film, the audience wants to find out which side is the good side and which side is the bad side.
Another aspect of mise en scene is the props used, the biggest kitchen knife is used, a reference to Psycho and the person is seen chopping onions on a chopping board stained with blood. This suggests the person chopping is demented and therefore likely to be an antagonist of the film because nobody in there right mind would chop red onions on a board which is covered in blood. This also suggests that the film has a supernatural element to it because vampires like blood and the person is eating and drinking food with blood stained all over it.

CUTTING ONION ON A BLOODSTAINED CHOPPING BOARD.

The editing in this scene is slow paced which goes with all the actions in the scene which is very good for building tension throughout the scene, it always makes the audience think what going to happen next.

The sound is also very good at playing with the audience because the non diagetic sounds sound as if they are mixing with one another and in some parts such as the beginning where the cooker is being lit, its almost as if the diagetic sound is in sync with the non diagetic sound. This connotes chaos and it intrigues the audience as they'll probably be wondering what causing the chaos in the first place.

Most of the shot types used are extreme close ups, mainly of things getting slowly sliced or hammered. This places emphasis on the sadistic nature of the person holding the knife and hammer.

EXTREME CLOSE UP OF MEAT GETTING CUT

evaluation of prelim

Earlier on this week, our group filmed the prelim and it was a valuable experience for us because we learned many things which we could use to make our actual thriller look as good as it possibly could. We wanted our prelim to be a thriller so it would have lots of tension init.

at 0:41 of the prelim, the issue with the shot is that it isn't framed properly and there's lots of open space so the focus isn't really on the subject of the shot but its surrounding.In our actual opening we will avoid doing this.

The editing of the scene is good as most of it is seamless although there were a few rough edits.

And at the beginning of the prelim, the camera was all shaky, we could've used the tripod to make all the camera wobble dissapeare. 

After we filmed the prelim we edited the footage and then added the soundtrack using Soundtrack. We used an electronic piano which builds up tension when we see Rochelle entering the room and the music fades when the conversation is about to start. And then another soundtrack this time with violins starts playing and it becomes louder at the climax of the scene.

We also took some photos of the filming which can be seen on an earlier blog. 

Evaluation of the Prelim

Evaluation 

What I really like about are Prelim is how the match cut was embedded in our final clip it looks seamless and un oticeable to the untrained eye.In addition i also liked the mise en scene as we tried are best to make it as an office as possible. This is because we wanted to set the mood of serious situation and we didn't have as much props as we would like to of had. We used a table horizontally, which would be used when two people are having a serious conversation, paper and a pen to make it look like Christina was doing work. However there are a few critisms when we notice the transitions to the different cuts were not that seamless as i would like it to be but as this was a practise we know are faults and have plenty of time to make improvements when it comes to the real filmimg. Another criticisms is that it was too dark in the classroom epecially when it was the wide shot of me and Christina  we should of chose a different room or opened up the blinds more and put the lights on.

PRELIM

Previous Candi Students Thriller Film

ViOLET

i like this video because it seems very good. the concept of the trailer was very effective it seems so real. the girl and the boy acting was very good as well they where in character. The music was extremely good because this is about a little girl and the music showed that effectively. This thriller trailer hooks the audience to the film which is a vital thing for films (positive thing.)





12. Erika, Nathan, Poppy, Charlene from 283goswell on Vimeo.

Ideas for our thriller opening.

Second idea:

My second idea is a man in an office, he is not facing his office door and he has a chair that spins. The door of the office opens and this man spins around in his chair. The person entering the office is masked he says to the man in the office "i know what you did" the office man then says "what do you mean" and before the masked figure replys he takes out his gun and shoots the office man. His head slowly falls to the desk in front of him. The mask figure then says once the office man is dead "shhh". 

Ideas for our thriller opening.

hmmmm....

i've been thinking about how our groups film opening should be and i've come up with a few ideas.

First idea:

For my first idea i visualised a young lady walking down an alley way, she has got her headphones in so she is tuned out from the world. Its really dark down the alley way so she is unable to see what is happening clearly, a man comes up behind her and begins to stab her with a knife. A similar shaped knife to those of films like 'pyscho' (1960) and 'The stepfather' (2009) therefore we will be using intertextuality. The girl started off the scene with a bag and as she is stabbed the bag comes crashing to the floor.. the killer then picks up something from what has fallen out of the bag. You can not see what this thing is but you know it is important. There is then a mysterious sound playing in the background which is kind of creepy.

Sounds;

Our group recorded the sounds for our trailer we made, me & rochelle did breathing and footsteps, whilst Hasan was recording us.

Once we recorded our sounds, we uploaded everything onto the Macs and we went on final cut pro and sound track after final cut.

we  then fit everything into the trailer and lined up all the credits in line with the green box which was like an outline.

(pictures uploaded are going to be uploaded soon)

Intertextuality

Intertextuality:


This is when films 'borrow' from each other, and we as the audience recognise certain things like camera angles, aspects of mise en scene, sound and certain methods of editing in some films that we have seen in other films.

This is the famous 'shower' scene from the film (1960) film 'Pyscho'

Many films over the years have 'borrowed' from the film 'Pyscho' and this particular film for example:

- The stepfather (2009)

- What lies beneath (2001)

- Fatal attraction (1987)

This is the last scene from the film 'The Stepfather' (2009) 

This film 'borrows' alot from the hit film 'pyscho' for example: 

- share the same white walls

- same shot when pulling down the curtain

- the same tiles and bath

- the same knife

- like in the first clip there was the same action of sliding down the wall

This tells me, that intertextuality should strongly influence our thriller, that we should be 'borrowing' certain aspects from other films in order to make them successful.

iNTERTEXUALITY:

Intertextuality is when directors use similar scenes from different films. 

directors will analyse a specific scene from a film and then put it in their film. ( not exactly copy but similar ideas.) E.g used in most films: when a new character is introduced they start form the feet and show all other parts of the body such as eyes, hair, maybe a bag or shoes their wearing (Mes-En-Scene) and right at the end they show/reveal the characters face. This is not just used in films its also used in soaps too such as Eastenders.

another example is the films we have watched: 

we watched psycho and then four other openings of a film to see if any of them relate or have 'borrowed' anything from the film psycho.  

we 

WHAT LIES BENEATH : white bathroom (wide shot), it also had the same shower head, the shower was on, visual reference and audio sound reference for why the shower was on. (the same white bath robe), 

THE STEP FATHER:  same white tiles (wall), same motion of pulling down the curtains, same bath, also had the same knife, & sliding down the back wall of the bath 

Prelim images;

These were the images we took whilst filming our prelim,

Rochelle and Hasan (:

Rochelle and hasan

Rochelle and hasan

Rochelle and Hasan

Hasan and Rochelle

Rochelle & Hasan

Rochelle and hasan

Rochelle and Hasan

Christina & Hasan

Animatic of Prelim

Arlington Road with soundtrack and Foley sound

Script for our Prelim;

 [Woman enters the room. Door closes behind her]
 [Woman 2 turns around in her seat]

Christina: I've been expecting you... Take a seat!

[Woman takes a seat on the chair she has been gestured too]


Rochelle: [Worringly] What do you want with me?


Christina:[chillingly] I'd like to tell you.. im the one who killed your father


Rochelle: [Shock horror] Nooooooo




This was a script for are Prelim we went with a dramatic effect. When coming up with our scropt we wanted to have fun with and we was inspired by action films like the God Father or a predictable action film, such as

Thriller Opening Idea 2

My 2nd idea is inspired by Phone Booth and Psycho, we begin with somebody getting ready for the shower, they turn it on and as soon as they turn it on the phone rings, (suspenseful music starts playing), just as the person who is about to speak, all that can be heard is a demented laugh and the line cuts off, the music at this point will be building up loads of tension. When the person puts the phone down he turns around to see a masked figure holding the knife that is used in Psycho and unleashes hell on the person who is about to get in the shower. Once all the stabbing has been done, all that can be heard is the phone ringing once again, this time a message is left once again in the form of a demented laugh.

Group 2 making Foley sound

On Monday 16th Janurary we had to produce are own Foley sound. We went about Angel to find sound that will fit in with Arlington re editing.. We were under time and wasn't able to find the amount of sound that we need but it was great fun while doing it. For us to make Foley sound with have to bring the mic realy close to the sound we are trying to collect so we can get the best quality sound.

This is Jabeen and Hasan creating footstpes for the fast pace running scene

Here is Rochelle and Hasan creating the breathing sound that we use in the background.

Here is another image of Rochelle and Hasan crearing the sound of a "groan" as the boy is in pain"

Here is Jabeen and Hasan creating heavy fast breathing because the man is running to find out waht is wrong with the boy.

We took other sound like us closing the bin lid to make the opening of a car soun. We were lucky enough to get the sound of a car driving by when we saw a van go pass use and we took that oppurtunity to record the sound. We got the sound of blood driping by droping water from our finger tips.

Foley sound - How its done, Why its and the History

Foley Sound - How its done, Whys its done and The History

Foley sound is used in filming and to enhance the auditory sound in the footage of everyday objects this can be the sound of closing a door or the sound of footsteps walking on the pavement. 

The best Foley sound is when it is not recognised by the audience as it creates a sense of realism for the audience watching the film. The main reason for why Foley sound is use is because the sound on set cannot always picked up to its fall potential and it is a way of covering unwanted sound on set. Foley sound can make the difference between a high budget film to a low budget film. 

Foley sound is added in the post production also know as at the editing stage, where there is complete control of timing and the quality of the sound being produced. Foley sound is done in a Foley studio, where the sound can be picked up by its highest potential, the people who conduct 

Foley sound are known as Foley artist. Foley artist are shown the scene where they are then told to perform the scene but concentrating on the sound that is being made this is they can get the correct timing. If Foley sound is not used then the scene will be lifeless and not portray a real life situation all we would hear is the actors talking. 

 

Foley sound is commonly used to enhance action sounds For example where there is fight scene and they are punching one another Foley sound is used to get the impact of the violence in the scene. This is the same with weapons Foley sound is used to get the sound of bullets firing out the gun.  

 Foley sound is created by Jack Foley in 1927, he started working in the film industry in 1924 the era of silent movies. When Warner brothers produced its first sound movie, Universal than joined the competition they employed people with radio experienced. Jack Foley became part of the sound crew. Universal produced there first musical the show boat in 1929. Jack Foley and his small crew will recreate the scene by using sound making sure there was correct timing  so the footsteps and closing doors will be in sync with the actors motion. Jack Foley received a number of rewards for is contribution in the sound production in films.

Target Audience research

The target audience is the group of people your film is attempting to attract, there are many different types of different target audiences. Film posters are designed in such a way that it can attract a specific target audience.
For example:

Toy Story 3 target audience is mainly little children. This can be shown in the font of the text, its big, colourful and the letters overlap each other. As well as that, the word "story" is in front of a red banner, which places emphasis on the word and this is key in attracting little children to the film because little children enjoy listening to stories.

The poster is also bursting with colour which makes it look lively so people wont be put off. The target audience is also those who enjoy a good laugh because at the top it says "breakout comedy of the summer"  and the expressions on the toys face look comical
which can attract people who like comedy too.

                                                                                       

 Another example is the Departed, this poster is targeted at adult males, because the font is big and not as interesting as the Toy Story 3 font and the facial expressions upon the characters faces suggests that the film is not for the light hearted. The black background implies that the film is going to have a dark element to it, and this appeals to males more than females.




TARGET AUDIENCES FOR THRILLER

Thriller movies tend to be for intelectual adults because most of the thriller films contain elements that can challenge the mind and tempt the audience to carry on watching the film in order to solve the mystery which has been imposed. However most thriller sub genres tend to be targeted more towards the male gender such as action thrillers which contain high levels of violence and lots of thrills.
Examples of sub genres targeted at males are The Boune Identity, and the Sentinel. On both of the posters they contain guns which attracts males.

However not all thriller sub genres are targeted at males, there are sub genres which attract more females than males, such as Romantic-Thrillers and Supernatural thrillers, in particular ones with children.These films tend to have less action than other sub genres but are as thrilling as most sub genres.
Films such as He loves me he loves me not and the orphanage are examples of films which are shifted towards females.