FINAL OUTSIDER

FINAL OUTSIDER

Editing ideas

one idea was to blur the clips of 'the fight' so that it looked as if it was a vision of someone memory thinking back as if they have seen it, but they cant quite get to grips of what they are seeing. this distinction between the 'flash back' and the normal shots makes it clear which one is which. this is a picture of the internet that we found that gave us this inspiration.

on the rest of the clips we sharpened up the images, this makes the the distinction of whats happening in the present and whats happening int the past in the 'flash back' more defined. by using a sharpening tool it gave each shot a more digital look, and made it some what jutter as the camera moved about. this image is an example of what this effect does.

title sequence

for the titles, we selected a font that was appropriate to our theme it looks as if it has been made with a type writer and the abstract lines surrounding the the text makes it look that much more suitable for out film opening, each title is individual, coming on and going of in different ways, such as quickly flashed on, fading into the picture or murging into the next shot. they have also been placed according to the music for example when it gets dramatic one with burst on! we also places black blocks of colour for some of the titles, to make them stand out from the rest of the shooting.

New storyline

As we didn't allow enough time we had to change our opening sequence. We were unable to access the locations we aimed to use, the graveyard and the basement.
We ended up using the college site, we used the toilets for where the two girls were arguing and for Mel's hand and newspaper scenes we used a billboard outside a classroom.
The whole storyline changed:
It starts off showing mels walking to her wall - where she has been stalking Abi
The camera focuses and shows all of mels work she has been doing
It flashes back to the girls entering the toilets
They begin to argue and shows theres conflict between the two of them
The camera shows mel is watching and she knows that the girls are arguing
Throughout all the flashbacks - mel is shown to be writing a letter too Abi, saying she knows
We left it as a cliffhanger so it builds tension up and makes the audience what to continue to watch

improvements

we have spent more time on improving our thriller film with the tips our peers gave us. some things we could not do as it would involve changing and reshooting the entire film, such as costumes. one of our cons was that "one of the clips is out of focus" after realising this we looked at it in more detail and came to the agreement that we like the look of this effect, so rather than making that shot in focus we change the other ones, i believe this effect makes the opening to our film more intense with the audience left not knowing what will come next, but wanting to know! the music Zoe made was to jumpy, i felt it was too dramatic and high pitch for the atmosphere we where trying to capture, so Zoe went back to changed some of the pitches and played around with tempo resulting in a smoother earie effect that went higher and lower in the right places. another comment was that it is "fairly hard to follow" but as a group we feel that we like how you dont have a story line as yet because it leaves and air of mystery leaving our viewers wanting to watch more.

Ready to evaluate

Page grabs have been taken off different programmes that we have used, for example photo shop, garage band, final cut express.
On the evaluation we are going to include the way in which we created things, we used the internet and certain websites which we will show in the powerpoint and explain all the little details.

Feedback from our roughcut

Pros -
Good use of sound - diegetic and non diegetic
Good graphics - the animation at the begining
Credits are good and fit in well
Good use of fade outs
Good variety of shot types
Editing in general fits well with sound
The title at the end is well presented
The flash transitions flow well

Cons - 
Fairly hard to follow
One clip is out of focus
Costumes could be better


Own feedback - aims-
Music wasn't suitable in some areas - redo and make some more music
First title maybe keep on screen for longer
Need to blur out Abbies face in all the scenes not just on one of them
Shots in the bathroom - try and make them zoom in and out - move about more!!
Shots upon shots - fading into each other
Mels face is too comical - cut it a lot shorter
Maybe do voice over for abis bit

Roughcut of the Outsider

story board pictures 3

story board pictures 2

story board pictures

Titles

New line cinema presents
A porthole production

Abbie Glover-main
Rachel Seaber-Shinn
Mel Vance
Zoe Masterson
R. Meeley
John Araskog

Casting by Edd Mcreeve
Music by Sally Eves
Costumes by Jessie M
Edited by Dirk H
Production designed by Harriet Hall
Written by Paul Harmon
Produced by L. Smith
Directed by Connor Sim

Storyline

The main idea for the opening is to have clips of scene shots. So it starts with production logo screen goes black at this point the film starts, then screen fades into black. First shot starts to appears of my feet walking down the cellar stairs then fades back into black. The tittles come on primarily at the bottom of the screen. then the next scene come from black.

SFX

Special Effects will be used to make it look more professional. Some things were taken into consideration to ensure this was possible.

Flash back scene


Blurred muffled voices- can make out some speech mainly screaming in the argument, but not clear.

During the flask back the screen will be blue/grey and hazy around the edges to show a distinct difference in reality and memory.

Events in the flash back will be in slow motion effect when they're fighting.

to go into the flash back have flash of white light at the start and end to show its a memory from abi's character.

props

we have taken some pictures of abi to show that mel has been watching abi and has been following her - we will use these photos in the opening to show the audience that mel is spying on her
these are just a few of the photos
we will always use newspaper titles we have made to how that abis sister zoe is dead!

Make up

Zoe
over the top dressy, but tear marks and makeup down her face

Mel
little to none as she does not want to stand out whilst spying but blend in.

Abi
normal makeup

Costumes

Abbie

• (actual film) brown messy boots (for close up of walking)

          dull colours but casual every day clothes

• (flash back) dressy outfit and heels

Mel

• (actual film) black boots

          dull black clothes, but still casual

• (flash back) dressy outfit more make up then usual as we will have a close up on her eye

Zoe/rachel

• (flash back) dressy outfit heels etc, just at a party make up all down her face as if she has been crying

Dialouge

We aim to have very little dialouge and use music and actions to tell the audience what is happening.

In the flashback Abi has we will have little dialouge to show that the characters are arguing.

Speech-
Abi - as approaching sister - shouts 'why did you do it, just tell me why?'
Sister - backing away- 'i didnt, i didnt i swear' -emotional and shocked as her sister is accusing her
Abi - 'theres evidence, i know you did it' - pushing sister
Sister - falling to floor - crying 'im sorry Abi, im sorry!'

Sound effects/ Music

We will create some music - some suspense music to go on throughout the opening, preferably low tone, quiet music that will gradually build up some tension yet emotion towards certain characters and make the other character seem mysterious. We aim to use garage band to create the music, yet use similar ideas to what we earlier found on youtube.

We will record some of our own sound effects-

1. muffled speech- for the flash back
2. eerie instrumentals- to be played throughout the stalker scenes
3. For tittle sequence- maybe techno beats or dark intrumental

Shooting schedule/timings/actions

1.Footsteps down thee stairs, camera focusing on the feet only, gradually getting more of the body in whilst ‘Mel’s’ moving towards the chair to sit down….
2.Over shoulder of Mel – of her hands grabbing the scissors (title)
3.Close up of hand cutting the paper – ‘O W …’ (title)
4.Flash of black paper with ‘I K N’ on

5.Abi’s feet walking away from the camera (title)
6.Back of Abi walking towards gravestone (title)
7.Side of Abi, falling to her knees

8.Mel’s hand rustling through things to find the glue (title)
9.Back of Mel – spotlight on her, showing the dark gloomy room (title)

10.Abi’s face close up, eyes shut – emotional/sad

11.Flashback - of Abi and sister (Zoe or Rachel) arguing, big row
12.Flashback – pushing shoving each other, crying, emotional
13.Flashback – Mel shown in background seeing this happen - her eye

14.Abi’s close up face again – opens eyes, shaken up (title) hands on head

15.Mel just finishing the paper, spelling out ‘I KNOW…’

Locations

We're hoping to use a cellar as our main location for Mel to be living and planning in

photos we're hoping to use in the opening as props

NEED TO DO

take pictures of the location - got cellar - need graveyard
need photos of rachel
notebook, pens, newspaper, scissors, clock possibly
create music similar to what we want in the film
think of a name
begin to think of titles - rachel

maybe change round our storyline -
less imagery of mel and more focus on abi at graveyard
her eyes shut - flashbacks - shock/upset face after
flash back of abi and rachel arguing - pushing etc


overall storyline - abi argue with sister (rachel) possible involved with death or murder
mel knows something about the death and is threatening abi to report it and haunting her

some props we are planning to use similar ideas to

Some examples of music-

Music which can be played throughout shots:
when focusing on obsessive character these types of music will be played (suspense, thrilling)



2 - when focusing on the two girls we need more erie music and when at obsessive character we want more suspense and dramatic music



3 - sections of the third video i found gave me key ideas of racing, faster music for when the camera is focusing on the girls walking



4 - this video is more focusing on the movements of the obsessive character and some sections are good for movements of the camera work showing emotions of certain characters

Costumes

Things are going to be kept very natural/ realistic

    - having characters in common clothes

      Nothing extravagant

      or dramatic
- mel- obsessive character probably wear dull clothing - maybe lots of ring

    

Storyline - basic ideas

We are going to base out opening on similar effects to what the thriller 'Seven'

- we aim to have plenty on little quick snappy shots

- they will be using diaries, date/times
- shot at clock expressing times changing
- bible - cross - writing - old diary

- person in dark gloomy room, showing bad person
- other two characters within a more happier yet isolated area

- filming girls just walking to place - their feet, over shoulder to half their face
- two characters within the park - meeting up, quick flashback to them
- using one character to be the OCD obsessive person

Our production logo

Titles

The Suspect

One Last swim

The Follower

The Outsider  (top contender)

The lie

Fonts and colour schemes

Colour schemes 

it is important to get this right, for example if you have bubbly pink writing, it will set the wrong impression for the rest of the film, creating the wrong atmosphere. first ideas:

• grey 
• black
• neutrals 
• dull lightings done by camera work ( could be edited on final cut)

Either embracing the idea of color opposites ie light and dark in any of the settings, costumes. Or staying away from it and shooting in gloomy settings and having costumes be plain.

flashes of bright light(blend in with the background of the scenery shot)

Fonts 

Typewriter style

Grunge style

locations

when choosing a location to shoot a film it need to be perfect, especially for a thriller film to get the mood right, otherwise it wont capture the right message. initial thoughts:

• haunted houses (train station, 
• villages (sawston, fulbourn, histon)
• towns (cambridge, newmarket)
• citys (london)
• night time(any where)
• day time(anywhere) 
• dawn(anywhere)
• forest (fulbourn of long road) 
• lakes (behind abis house & in the fulbourn forest)
• school (long road)
• garden (any of our gardens) 
• field (loads of feilds)
• farm (fulbourn)
• cave (magogmagog hills chalk cave)
• river (granchester medows) 

ABI HAS A CELLAR - POSSIBLY USE THAT LOCATION FOR WHERE MEL IS - DARK AND OLD, CREEPY ATMOSPHERE AND THE GIRLS MAY BE VISITING GRAVEYARD 

Spy Glass Productions

This production image gives a sense of adventure and playfulness.

Walt Disney Production Logo

This creates a fun, friendly, exciting, fantasy land, creative feeling.
It aims for younger children, they will be enticed as it creates the feeling of magic. They are most likely to be cartoons if not then very young children based films.

InsaneTK Production

This logo makes me feel they present sci-fi films, also more intellectual films. The writing seems quite modern and sophisticated due to the lights shining behind the writing making it luminous. This is more for a older generation.

MMG Prodcutions

 This logo gives me a sense of a sci-fi futuristic film. The design has a sharp modern touch which could also be represented with the type of film.

Star Harbor Production Logo

This production logo makes me feel they produce younger aged group films/movies, there is a little boy so this represents the age group. Also the shooting star makes me feel it may be fantasy and fun. It is in cartoon, so it seems they range the films at groups below teenagers.

After watching students work

Top tips -

use range of shots
if use handheld then not too shaky
leave it so audience has questions - not all resolved
plan well + quick - film, leave time to re-do shots if need be
use costume
storyboard
decent script
make actor act appropriately
music - not to dramatic - low and distant
location
shoot a lot of footage + retake a lot
good fonts - keep consistent - not near edge of screen

Leon

There is light flowing music, one instrument playing through the title sequence.
Doesn't fit too well with the thriller to start with as it seems a happy atmosphere, however we don't see any characters.
The titles stay in the centre of the screen, at one stage as the camera zooms through the street, the titles stay in line with the lines in the road.
I like the way the camera pans over a forest leading onto a busy city which shows the location of where the story will be held.
I didn't like the way we weren't introduced to any characters - it was all scenery and not much story line.

Munich

It has no opening titles at all, but there is a newsreader than describes the situation after we have seen some clips of people in Western Germany.
Genre - action, crime, thriller - using guns and force
There are two groups of people - people who are holding the olympic sportsmen hostage and the 9 held hostage. There is a clear devision between the two groups.
Shots used at the beginning are very close up, of a mans hand trying to climb the gates, then we see a medium shot of the groups of men.
Some props used were guns and uniforms which shows the audience the different groups, the olympic sportsmen were in the pyjamas so they were unprepared.
We didn't like how there were no titles and how it was quite confusing to understand, but we liked the way it was mysterious and filled with action from the very beginning.

secret window montage

Secret Window

The Game - Thriller

The first opening sequence is watching some characters which are setting the story allowing us to be one step ahead of the other actors.

Intense music was being played throughout the opening and the characters were silent.

Over the shoulder is used to show how important the conversation is, different close ups are used to show the men's attitudes - one is not worried about laws etc as smoking inside a Californian restaurant. 

It has flashbacks when he is in the car, the camera zooms to the end of car then back to the flashback making it seem these times were extremely important to the man. 

The single man, who lives on his own, has his dinner already prepared for himself and his own champagne with birthday cake. It shows he is focused on his career and he seems lonely.

He is lying on the sofa thinking of the past where you see a little boy who we assume is him and he is on his own standing on the roof. 

Lighting - dark lighting sets the mood - spot light upon the main man

When the man is being followed the camera looks onto his mirrors so we see what he sees, adding drama

Evaluation of thriller preliminary task

We failed to use match on action shot, the continuity worked well until Mel put her hand upon the door handle, we crossed the 180 degree rule therefore the audience were not sure of who was opening the door - Rachel or Mel. It is uncertain so we are going to re do this task hoping to improve and complete the three continuity editing rules.

Definition + examples

Definition of a thriller is - is a broad genre of literature, film and television - they are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, resourceful heroes, powerful villains. 


First ever thriller film was back in 1923  which was Safety Last and Blackmail in 1929.


Some popular and well known examples are:
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Dracula (1931)
Frankenstein (1931) 
Die hard
The Ultimate Bourne collection
The number 23
Fight club

Research for thriller

Continuity Editing:


Shot reverse shot - is a film technique to show one character looking at another character who is off screen at the current time, then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. 


180 degree rule - is a basic guideline in shots, when two characters within the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. The camera should now 'cross the line' (imaginary line axis connecting the two subjects)


Match on action - an editing technique when an edit takes place in the middle of an action. For example - if a character lights a match in the first shot, the same character will draw it up to a cigarette in the second shot.