Friday 28 January 2011

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

Wednesday 26 January 2011

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

Tuesday 25 January 2011

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 

Wednesday 19 January 2011

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.

Tuesday 18 January 2011

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.

Tuesday 11 January 2011

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

Friday 7 January 2011

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.