P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Thursday 31 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Filming

We have decided that we are filming the weekend commencing the the 2nd of february. We are going to go to a party on the saturday night to film our party scenes. We Hope to film all of our shots in an hour.
We are going to film the woods secnes at a later date, just depending on when we are free. We hope this will know when in the next couple of days.

More reserach in preparation for 'woods' scene

Laura and I found this clip on Youtube


It is located in a forest and so I carefully watched it in attempt to observe the different angles and shots. Because the film is about 'magic' etc, the mise en scene is very different to how we want ours, despite the forest setting. It has a lot of fog, to presumably create a mysterious and magical atmosphere, but this wouldn't be fitting with our sequence as it would most probably appear too cliche. Also, because of the supernatural themes, the tree trunks are over sized.
As with the 'Robin Hood' clip, there are many overhead shots. They look very effective, and-if we can manage it!-we will be using overhead clips of the forest.

Lauren

Feedback from the animatic

The feed back from our animatic was as follows:
Clear shots on the story board
Music need to be cut smoothly
Blurred image of the girl drinking is very effective
Need to decide where the camera will be for every shot
Need a variety of shots and shoot extra footage in case we change our inital shot ideas then we will have extra footage to choose from.
When we move from the title of Daiquiri should we have the transition as bubbles to show that it is a drink and that it has been spiked
We have good shot variety like the close up of the girls shoes
The story board was easy to follow so people understand what we want to happen.

We hope this feedback will mean that our thriller becomes better.

Wednesday 30 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

The Wood Scene...

Our animatic shows how we intend to create a party atmosphere. When it changes suddenly to the forest scene, we have only drawn the girl on the floor, and then a shot of her running. We obviously are going to include several other shots in the forest, however, we don't know what ones as of yet. So our animatic will just be the rough idea, rather than a less accurate version of the final sequence.

For inspiration for the forest scene, I have watched 'The Village' (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) as the scarier parts of this thriller are in a forbidden forest. We noticed that the film uses the trees as props during this part. For example, at one point, the girl stands back to a large tree, and with clever camera angles, we can see someone is standing around the other side, but the angle doesn't allow us to see who. We may use this idea in our sequence.

We want to have shots of the girl's feet. We also want diegetic sound as well as the music, i.e. the girl heavily breathing, the snapping of twigs at her feet as she runs. These will all hopefully add to the atmosphere and build suspense.

I also looked at BBC's 'Robin Hood'. Although this is a different genre of film, it is based in a forest so I wanted to observe the different shots and what works well. They used shots from high in the trees, looking down on the characters. As we only have one VISIBLE character in this scene, this technique would add variation to the sequence. We really want to create the sense that our main character is being watched in the forest. To do this, we will have the camera behind tress and turning round, as well as having the shot slightly obstructed by branches or something to the same effect.

I also looked at 'The Crucible', 'Into The Woods', and 'Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets'.
Lauren



This is a photo of our mood board. we have done this so we know the kind of settings and the moods we want to create in the two totally different settings in our thriller openings. we hope by doing this it will help us to film as we already know the moods we want to create and so we do not have to waste time on the day of filming sorting out what moods we want to create.

animatic story board



This is a video of our animatic story board. This is a very rough idea of how we hope the opening will look. However the end shoots for the flashbacks will be alot longer but we ran out of time before we had to uploa so we thought that if people at least got the idea of how it would look that would be ok.

Our animatic shows how we intend to create a party atmosphere. When it changes suddenly to the forest scene, we have only drawn the girl on the floor, and then a shot of her running. We obviously are going to include several other shots in the forest, however, we don't know what ones as of yet. So our animatic will just be the rough idea, rather than a less accurate version of the final sequence.

For inspiration for the forest scene, I have watched 'The Village' (M. Night Shyamalan, 2004) as the scarier parts of this thriller are in a forbidden forest. We noticed that the film uses the trees as props during this part. For example, at one point, the girl stands back to a large tree, and with clever camera angles, we can see someone is standing around the other side, but the angle doesn't allow us to see who. We may use this idea in our sequence.

We want to have shots of the girl's feet. We also want diegetic sound as well as the music, i.e. the girl heavily breathing, the snapping of twigs at her feet as she runs. These will all hopefully add to the atmosphere and build suspense.

I also looked at BBC's 'Robin Hood'. Although this is a different genre of film, it is based in a forest so I wanted to observe the different shots and what works well. They used shots from high in the trees, looking down on the characters. As we only have one VISIBLE character in this scene, this technique would add variation to the sequence. We really want to create the sense that our main character is being watched in the forest. To do this, we will have the camera behind tress and turning round, as well as having the shot slightly obstructed by branches or something to the same effect.

Other films that had scenes in a forest were: 'The Crucible'

Names for opening sequence

Director by Christopher Davidson
Produced by Eleaner Powell
Edited by William Broad
Casted by Roberta Anderson
Starring Fiona Bridges, Ben Degrandis
These are the names we are going to be using for our title sequences. we hope they sound realistic and they are believiable.

Thursday 24 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Paramount Pictures




We decided to look at existing picture companies for our opening. Then we would just put them in front of our own title sequence. We thought using an existing Company would look more professional and is safes us saving time creating our own.
These were the two we looked at from You Tube.

Columbia Pictures




Universal Pictures




After researching these different Company names, we have decided to go with Paramount Pictures. We decided this one because we thought it was well known and they do a range of films. So we thought it would be suitable for ours as in the past they have done thrillers.

Wednesday 23 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Feedback

Our group feedback was :
that we may be telling too much of the story and therefore we need quick, shorter shots instead of long ones.
People liked the title because it's recognisable as a cocktail.
People said the idea was easy to picture.
By using older people, it will make it seem more authentic.
It's a good idea to use DayForNight in the forest.
We're going to use music to show the muffled sound of the party.
And finally, it's good that we're filming at an actual party rather than a pretend one.

Tuesday 22 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Party thoughts

We want the audience to see the party being fun,loud realistic. We have looked at the Skins show to help us find the atmosphere for the scene. We want the party to look relistic and not played out.



this clip shows the right atmosphere of the party, with the drinks and drugs.

To get this atmosphere we have decided not to stage the party, we have decided to film a real party so its more realistic and the people in the background are actually having fun not being directed.

Costumes and Props

Girl-
Shoes that can be a focus, as we see her running later in the forest, we can have calm shots of her shoes at the party/bar.
She'll be wearing fake nails that show she cares about her appearance, they will also make her hands look better-as they will be used in close ups of her drinking the Daiquiri.
Straightened hair is typical of teenage girls.
We are undecided as to what the girl will be wearing, although we will probably have her in something white, to portray innocence, also to match the cocktail. In addition, white will get very muddy in the forest and this should look effective.

Man/men-
wearing black-so that they don't stand out, contrasting with the white.
sinsiter, dark colour.

Party people-
in attire that they would normally wear to a party. Bright colours.

Additional props
The Drink -to make the drink not stand out too much and to look out of place, we will have people in other shots drinking from cocktail glasses but not the same cocktail.
Plastic cups -for other drinks.
a pill (soluble paracetamol)
mobile phone -for a shot of vibrating mobile phone on the floor.

We will update this post if we think of any other props to add.

Our Pitch

During last nights planning session, we developed and decided on our initial idea. We are unsure on various aspects of the title sequence, but we have the gist. We're hoping to start at a bar or party. This is dependent on where we can film and when. The initial idea for the name comes from a focus point of the sequence, which is a cocktail. We researched different cocktail names and came across 'Daiquiri' which is a white cocktail. The fact that it was white was significant because it will hopefully stand out in our shots and attract attention.
So at our location (which ever it ends up being), a girl will be be herself. We want to portray her as someone who is waiting for friends. We want to create the impression that she is innocent and vunlerable but not so much that it's unrealistic for her to be in the chosen scene (i.e. she still fits in at the party/bar).
We are yet to decide if we want one or two males as the suspicious characters. We do know however, that he or they will play a key role in the opening scenes. We want to shoot shots that give the impression that the girl is being watched, and also close ups of the man/men and their sinsiter characteristics. The cocktail comes into play when we see it being spiked with a single 'pill'. We want this particular shot to be successful in creating suspence and being visually 'thrilling'.
We then see the drink either being offered, or sent over via waiter, to the girl.
When she turns to see who sent the drink, the man is gone.
There will be a dramatic change of scene which will hopefully create an almost 'nightmare' illusion. She will be lying on the ground in a remote, dark, forest. (we already have this location.) We see her slowly regain consiousness. Then we want to have flashbacks to the party, with shots of people dancing, flashing 'club' lights, a shot of the d.j., her running through the forest in panic and confusion. The two different locations will be a drastic contrast and therefore will build suspense and really emphasise her confusion and provoke questions from the audience: 'what happened to her?' and most importantly 'who did it?' and 'where is he?'
with careful shooting, we hope to create the sense of her being watched without actually showing any shots of another person in the forest. We hope to do this by making the camera angles slightly absract by having them obstructed by objects (trees, branches etc), as though the camera shows the villan's viewpoint.

Thursday 17 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Surface



We choose this video from the students work.
We thought the cutting from different scenes was really good. How you have a calming scene first with the Ink spilling and then a faster pace scenes. We also liked the way the music fitted with the credits. With the fast and slow speed. The contrast of the scenes are really effective. The names are only shown with the calming scenes with ink spilling the text fades in and out very calmly.

The scenes arent very clear give off a very misterious view. the scenes of the people are very dark, this could be to indicate the dark deed they are doing. Only colour in any scenes are of the red ink spilling and the white text. The red is very effective and it indicates blood/danger/death.

this opening will get the audience asking alot of questions about whats happening, who, where and why. We think this opening will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film. Has close up of eyes to show emotion in the persons face, show fear.

Psycho



The Video above is a differet opening credit we also looked at. We thought the black screen with the white knife was really effective. also with the names coming in with the circle shapes. It shows what the film is about.



This video is of the beginning credits of Psycho; it shows the black backround which grey stripes come into, having seen the film we said that the grey stripes show the two sides of the characters within the film. When titles come in such as Alfred Hitchcocks name we see it break in the middle again reinforcing this fact that the story had two sides to it. The music is very dramatic and fast making the film have a more intense atmosphere.

Thriller openings we have seen:

We've started watching thriller openings carefully to look for different conventions and to hopefully find some techniques that work well that we can incorporate into our own opening.
We've watched student work from previous years and different schools. In addition to this, we have been watching (in class and in our own time), real thriller opening sequences in attempt to trigger ideas for our sequence.
We watched The Butterfly Effect and noted how the opening didn't include any titles other than the film title. The opening sequence was a fast paced scene whereby the audience doesn't understand what is going on. It consists of one actor, dull lighting, diegetic sounds (shouting-in the background), carefully chosen costume, and very fitting music. In conjunction, the aforementioned techniques build suspense and intriege. Maybe we will use these techniques in our sequence! -Lauren
We liked Casino Royal because the titles are visually very detailed and just amazing in general!
All of the titles are linked to the casino theme. It shows animated 'clubs' and 'spades' from a deck of cards and includes real images of the actor playing James Bond. This immediently shows the audience who the central character is.
We evaluated the different aspects and images in the animation and interpreted their significance. For example, the 'vines' represent James Bond's growth in status and position. There is an image of The Queen Of Hearts, and at onepoint her face is shown to be the face of James Bond's love interest. Gun shots are shown repeatedly and in place of bullets, the animated guns shoot red and black 'spades'. The red and black are representative of blood and death, and are a good indication of the genre of film and the occupation of James Bond and what his job entails.
There is a close up of an individual card, seven of hearts, and Bond makes two bullet holes in front of the 'seven' so that it says '007'. -Erin & Lauren



Wednesday 16 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Final Cut Example




The link above is an example of Laura and Alexa practising techniques on Final Cut and Garageband. We included titles, transitions, cut scenes, and fading. The music to go with this was produced by us both in garageband which played through the movie. We combined different sounds we found on Garageband and mixed them together and placed them were we thought it sounded good.




HI!
Above is a short video we made last week, as we were learning different techniques we could apply to our thriller.
We used 'Star-Iris' to make the transition more exciting. We also used a fade between shots. Using garageband, we created our own soundtrack and fitted it.

Monday 7 January 2008
P1-02 : THRILLER PROJECT 2007/8

Welcome