Filming our recky shoot

Today we went out of the lesson to film our first shoot. We used Ollie's iphone to record all of the shots that we have put into our storyboards. We brought the storyboard with us and went through all of the shots one by one, trying to get them how we want them to be. Me and Kingsley did the acting, the task took us about half an hour, however the shots aren't perfect, just a rough idea of what we want. The task also helped us see if there was anything wrong with the shots that we want to use and see if any changes needed to be made. It took us about half an hour to film all our shots. We used the art path, media classroom and the canteen for our locations.

What is a thriller?

A thriller is a genre of film, it involves a lot of suspense and tension. Thrillers revolve around anticipation and suspense. The aim for Thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats

There's also many types of thriller films, other wise known as sub genres, such as:

• Action thriller- will often have continuous motion and action including physical stunts, chases, fights, battles, and races.
• Crime thriller- usually centers on a serial killer, murderer, robbery, or manhunt.
• Film-noir- is characterized by a black-and-white style with stark lighting effects. The main character is usually a cynical hero
• Sci-fi thriller- will explore the “future-gone-bad” theme, including plots that revolve around alien invasions, extra terrestrial scenarios, and super-diseases.
• Psychological thriller-  is a fictional thriller story which emphasizes the psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states.
• Religious thriller- include supernatural experiences not pertaining to a certain religion. Exorcisms, demon possession, and church cover-ups are typical themes

 Thrillers usually involve a sudden plot twist which is one of the features that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, they also generally have a typical use of red herrings which keeps people watching. 

Some specific examples of some thrillers I like are The Devil Inside, The Purge and Frozen.

The Devil inside is a religious thriller and is primarily based on the aspect of demonic posession.

The purge is more of an action/ crime thriller, i like it because the story line is really interesting and the whole concept of the film makes me think.

Finally frozen is more of a psychological thriller, the film is built on tension, its slow placed but the film itself is really good.

Thriller research- more props

As we developed our story board, we now have introduced the shot with two policemen chasing the man through the forest. As they are policemen we need to make it clear, therefore we are going to need two police officers uniforms for our sequence as well. I thought we would go for an authentic look to create the best effect.

Actual coursework task defined

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Character development and actor possibilities

Due to our opening title sequence involving a hard drive, my self and Ollie discussed what type of character that we would like. For example, is he a thug or an IT worker?- both of these could fit into our sequence we just need to decide on which one would be best and then someone who fitted that character profile way.

If we were going to have an actor who could play the thug then we would want someone big, maybe bearded and imposing. We then had the idea of using Ted Jackson.Ted would also be an ideal character as he has tattoos which would add to his thuggishness.

Character list

In terms of mine, Kingsley and Ollie's character list we require only one or two different characters. At the moment, the only person we want in our Thriller is a man aged between 30 and 40, which is a very easy age range to find. We have a choice of plenty of teachers at Hurtwood House.

The three of us also contemplated using two policeman to arrive in the drive way of our location, but we feel that we can create more suspense and cause the audience to ask more questions by simply putting in the sound of the policeman knocking on the door, instead of showing the audience who is doing the knocking.

This picture shows two armed British policeman

Thoughts on location

We have decided to use a location rather than a set as we feel that it will fit our sequence a lot better. In our sequence we need both an upstairs and a downstairs of the house, therefore it is a lot easier and less time consuming if we use a location rather then a set. It gives us more time to focus on filming and editing of the final piece. Furthermore our sequence requires a Forrest and there is a natural one at Peaslake so that would be prime to use for us, also there is Adams house at Peaslake, he is the housemaster of peaslake and also our media techer so we could consider using that as the house. There is no point in using the set for a Forrest when we already have one. For the forest we want it to look like the one below, so all the leaves and twigs will make snapping and crunching sounds which will help build tension and create effect in our opening title sequence. So far we think that Peaslake is the prime location to film at as it provides everything that we need. Peaslake is a boarding house, in the surrey hills, its a boarding house of the school Hurtwood house. It will provide us with all the forms of location that we need in our sequence.


   

Thiller research- Props

Witht he development of our new idea has come the need for use of props. So far the two most essential props that have emerged from our idea are fake money and a duffel bag. This links into the shot of the man packing money into a duffel bagt just before he is leaving the house.

We know that Ollie has a duffel bag, but none of us have fake money, so we did some research on ebay and amazon to see how much it was. Its not too expensive so we decided that when we need to we will order some, so we can make our scene look as realistic as possible. At first we were going to use pounds, but then we changed our minds to use Euros. We did this because we felt that Euros were more of an internationalized currency.

Thriller research- Ideas for forest scene

We only recently thought of the forest scene, as we thought that it would be good to add into our sequence as it could create a good effect. Also we have easy access to a forest where we are and it can fit in relatively week with the sequence that we want.


I found a clip from Sherlock Holmes with a great forest chasing scene:I really liked the scene because it was very action packed and the non dietetic music went very will with the scene. I especially liked the use of slo-mo as it made the scene itself more effective.

Storyboard- 25th November 2014

These shots are going to be the base of our story board, as you can see it is no where near complete but we have a good idea of the shots that we want to use.






Shot 1 : Safe opening, memory stick.

Shot 2 : Picks up stuff from safe, carries it to bed

Shot 3 : Hands putting stuff into bag

Shot 4 : Back to safe

Shot 5 : Hands into safe (hear a car coming up drive, door slams)

Shot 6 : reaction shot close up

Shot 7 : hurried actions, packs bag

Shot 8 : close up of him zipping and picking up the bag

Shot 9 : follow shot of him running down stairs

Shot 10 : over shoulder shot of door (hearing the knock)

Shot 11: Runs to back door

Shot 12: over shoulder shot of back door open  (stops running and pauses to stare) (hears crash as door is forced open) (music starts to build up)

Shot 13: Him running out of the door.

Shot 14: Running into forest, music building up massively then music stops

Shot 15: Close up, breath curling in front of face. (hear twig snap)

Shot 16: black

Our ideas development

Our idea has changed from my original idea which was:


A man is working in his bed, with nothing but the laptop shining on his face, he is typing up some work. Then it cuts to the front door and all you see is a gloved hand knocking on his door just once. Then it cuts back to the man, he now has anxious yet knowing look on his face. Then the knocking on the door get harder. Then it cuts to a shot outside his house and there is a car with tinted windows and its engine running, then OTS shot of him seeing the car. As he gets to the stairs the knocking stops, he goes down the stairs creak a lot. As soon as he reaches the bottom of the stairs the knocking turns into a hammering. He slowly walks to his front door, then suddenly the knocking stops, he goes right up to the door, and looks through the peep hole, screen blacks out.


It has now developed into more of a criminal related sequence. It now is a man trying to quickly escape/ leave his house, for reasons unknown to the audience. We see him packing a bag with money, and quickly zipping it up. The as he gets downstairs he hears a knock on the door, so he decides to go out the back door, but its open. The final shot will be him running into a forrest.

My four ideas for coursework

Well i had four ideas of which one, i thought was good, and as you know one of my ideas is where are coursework started but now it has completely changed, but we all like our newest idea the most and we will stick with it.

My ideas were:

1. Man is working in bed, hears car pull up outside, goes looks out window sees engine is running. Gets back to bed hears knock at front door. Goes down, creaky stairs and music. knocking gets louder and louder as he approaches door, when he puts door on handle knocking stops and is coming from upstairs
2. A girls doll get possessed and things start happening around the house, things going missing. Then they find girls is sleepwalking whilst talking.
3.  Woman is walking home after a night out and feels like she is being followed, keeps seeing dark alleyways and feels like she hears thing behind her. then she looks back and sees masked man and she gets bundled into a car
4. Man escapes from prison and is chased but gets away, he hides in a dark alleyway then gets hit in the head with a bat whilst running away.

My 4 original thriller ideas

1

 Opening title sequence: A man is working in his bed, with nothing but the laptop shining on his face, he is typing up some work. Then it cuts to the front door and all you see is a gloved hand knocking on his door just once. Then it cuts back to the man, he now has anxious yet knowing look on his face. Then the knocking on the door get harder, so het gets up and goes to the closet. Then it cuts to a shot outside his house and there is a car with tinted windows and its engine running. As the knocking gets louder he gets downstairs. He slowly walks to his front door, then suddenly the knocking stops, he goes right up to the door, and looks through the peep hole, and sees the face of a clown. Then you hear the sounds of the doorknob turning. Then screen blacks out.

 

The film is going to be about a bunch of clowns taking people from their homes and killing them, it will be like a purge, they just take people from their homes and kill them for no apparent reasons. After the first few deaths a police group will be on their tale but the group of clown killers will always be one step ahead of them.

2

Opening title sequence: There is a car just cruising along the road, steady pace, then cuts to the older looking man who is driving the car, he has a concerned look on his face. Then it focuses on the child in the seat next to him who looks calm and collected. Then in the background there is a loud sound of a revving engine. Suddenly the car driver puts his foot down and starts to accelerate, the child looks confused but doesn’t say anything. Cuts to two balaclava clad men in an all black car on their tale. The driver knows he wont get away so he pulls over, and the men behind pull over behind and get out the car. One whips out a pistol, screen blacks out.

 

The plot of the film is going to be a kidnapping and these men are going to kidnap this child, and ask for a ransom or they will slowly kill him. The man will firstly try to raise the money he needs to get his kid back, but when that doesn’t work he will use brute force and take his child back. The men will always be one step ahead of him but he will find clues as to there next where about, but he just needs to get there before they leave.

 

3

Opening title sequence: A woman is walking down a street late at night on her own, it is not busy, there are no cars just her. As she is walking she is clutching all her belongings tightly, she suddenly hears a sound behind her , cuts to a POV shot but she can’t actually see anything. She continues to walk but now  bit more swiftly, she hears another sound, and spins around and sees nothing, but then camera cuts to behind her and we see a shadow of someone behind her. Suddenly a car pulls up and stops in front of her the back doors swing open and someone bundles her into a car.

 

This film is going to be about these men taking this woman and torturing her  and trying to mutate her. She isn’t the only woman they are doing this two. They are taking everyday innocent woman and trying to perform mutations on them. When the mutations don’t work they just get different woman, and retry the experiments on them until it works.

 

 

 

4

Opening title sequence: A young child is walking around his house and then he sees a ladder by the entrance to the loft. He carefully places it and climbs up the ladder, the sounds will be very creaky as he is going up. When he gets up it will be really dark and will look old and dusty. He looks around and stops when he finds a doll, there is a low sound of creepy music, then he climbs down the ladder, and takes the doll to his bedroom. He leaves it on his bed and goes downstairs to his parents. When he gets back upstairs the doll is gone and the loft is closed. The film is going to be about a possessive doll.

First lesson in Courswork groups

My group consists of Me , Kingsley Giles and Ollie Tennant. We feel as if we will work well together as a unit and can do well in this task if we put our minds to it.


Today we discussed each of our favourite ideas and have now narrowed it down to three possible ideas for our opening title sequence.

Mine being:

A man is working in his bed, with nothing but the laptop shining on his face, he is typing up some work. Then it cuts to the front door and all you see is a gloved hand knocking on his door just once. Then it cuts back to the man, he now has anxious yet knowing look on his face. Then the knocking on the door get harder. Then it cuts to a shot outside his house and there is a car with tinted windows and its engine running, then OTS shot of him seeing the car. As he gets to the stairs the knocking stops, he goes down the stairs creak a lot. As soon as he reaches the bottom of the stairs the knocking turns into a hammering. He slowly walks to his front door, then suddenly the knocking stops, he goes right up to the door, and looks through the peep hole, screen blacks out.

Kingsley's being:

The girl tries to get up and run but she can’t move at all. There are sounds of someone walking slowly on a wooden floor. She goes dead silent and looks straight ahead in pure fear. A silhouetted figure stands in front of the camera with a knife in his hand, we only see from his hip. The girl wakes up in a bed screaming, in the middle of the night. She looks around and realizes that it was just dream. She gets up out of her room and heads towards the kitchen to get a drink of water. As she leaves the room the camera zooms out from the window and standing a few metres away from the window in total darkness. The same shadowy figure is standing with a knife in his hands. The movie then cuts to black

Ollie's being:

OTS two men in a car, talking in Russian with the word dead in English used for emphasis. follow then on the journey around the roads to a house. men get out and take guns from the boot. cut to a man in military uniform sitting at a desk on a laptop with a US flag on the wall. laptop out of focus. then the two men's legs and shoes appear in the shot. screen goes blank. Credits come up in centre screen while newspaper clippings about the Russian USA cold appear on screen.

Target

  Here you can view the clip of the opening title sequence Target

 What is your understanding of the action in the sequence. What is happening?
From what i can understand from the sequence and the title, is that someone has stealthily broken into the house and that the man in bed is the 'Target'.
 What do you think the rest of the film might be about?
The rest of the film would be based on the main character who is the one sleeping in the bed, and maybe he would have been captured and the rest of the film could have been about him trying to escape.
 What is your view on the casting? Have they chosen convincing actors? (not necessarily in terms of their acting but in terms of their suitability for the role/the right look etc.)
You cant make much judgement on the casting as you only see one character, the character in bed does look vulnerable, however i feel as if would have been more effective if they maybe used a female character.

Are the characters interesting?
The only interesting thing about the man in bed is that you wonder why he may be the 'target', but then for the character coming up the stairs you want to know what he looks like and why he is actually there, especially when he is going through the documents that have been left on the desk, you wonder what is so significant about the documents, why he is looking at them and why theyve just been left out if they aree so important

 
What do you make of the camera work, editing, sound, how convincing is the mise en scene?
The camera work and editing is good because it constantly is cutting from the person who has broken in to the vulnerable man in bed, the use of 3 second shots allows us to see the mans movements, such as when he opened the window and door handle plus when he is sifting through the documents. The sound is perfect for the scene as it creates a feeling of tension, the alarm clock going of when it did was perfect timing and helped solidify the feeling of tension. The mise en scene was fine, but there is not much to comment on it.

Is it a studio or location shoot? How does this effect the final product?
I think that it is a location shoot, as there is use of windows and a bed. This makes the final product much better because it is much more realistic and just in general makes the scene more believable.
If there is music, does it fit the piece? What mood does it create?
The music fits the piece very well as it creates a feeling on tension and i believe that is what the sequence was trying to achieve. The music also creates quite a suspenseful atmosphere which really fits in with the scene.
How many credits are there and what roles do you think they are?
There are quite a few credits and i think the roles are everything, ranging from actors to editors.

 Are the credits well spaced? Are they well positioned in the frame? Do you like the font they have chosen to use and does it fit the piece?
The credits are very well spaced so we have time to read all of them, they are well positioned and very easy to read. I do like the font as its clear and very straight and yeah i do think it fits the piece.
What do you think of the film title they have chosen?
I like the film title that they have chosen, it sounds interesting and maybe like one of a film a may watch. The title is also effective as it fits into the opening title sequence and sounds like a good title for what i have seen so far.  
Is it effective overall? Does it make you want to watch on?
I think it is really effective as it leaves a lot to the imagination, and yes it does make you want to watch on, it pulls you into the scene and makes you think about the possibilities of what could happen next.
What type of film do you think it would be if made for real? Low or high budget? Independent or mainstream? Cinema or straight to DVD? etc.
From the opening title sequence it looks like it could be a low budget film, but it would depend on how they want to develop it, so i could be either low or high budget it just depends on what they want to do with it in my opinion. I think if they make it high budget then definitely mainstream but, if low budget they should consider both. It should go into the cinema because i reckon it could be successful and then they could bring it out on DVD after