Thriller opening titles

SAW I
.black background, blue writing
.blue light goes over mans face, this shows him to be underwater
.title appears "SAW" writing moves like water, carrying on the effect
.when man opens eye's a thunder of music occurs
.as the water goes down drain (close up of plug) man throws himself out of the tub to reveal scummy off white tiles, rusty taps and a rusty bath
.very dark (grim) lighting
.shows blue light go down plug hole
.when falls on floor, its covered in grime and rust
.intense bleak music
.as camera follows man, you can see a toilet, room established as bathroom
.after hearing a noise man calls out to room, camera stays on him, so audience is in suspense or "in the dark" like the character
.When man 1 says something and man 2 replies (in a gruff voice) camera continues to stay on man 1
.man 1 is panicked man 2 is more calm (knows more than man 1)
.man 2 (i found something" camera goes up to strip lights turning on as it moves back it cuts between man 1 shielding his eyes. it cuts back and forth
.man 1's reaction, eyes closed
. when eyes focus, you see it through his eyes. blurry going into focus.
.when he gets focused looks ahead to the left
.camera is then on man 2. he is pale with a graze on his cheek. He's wearing a sweat soaked shirt.
.cuts to his point of view (through his eyes) you see most of room and the man 1 (in blur, because light)
.this makes you feel like your in characters position (classic thriller)
.camera moves down showing man covered in blood.
.sharp intense music goes with emotion.
.camera spins out (as if from shock)

Fondation production

Codes and conventions of a typical thriller

Camera:
.Camera should take on human qualities.
.High angles for victims , low angles for power (killer).
.Point of view shots.

Editing:
.Point of view shot sequence.
.Montages
.Camera tells story of whats happening rather than the actor.

Sound:
.Violins, piano, bass.
.Classical music, no vocals.
.Voice overs (explaining plot).
.Hear the voice before seeing the person/creature, creates surprise.

Narrative: plot over character development.
.surprise or twist
.MacGuffin
.Throw audience of scent.
.Based around philosophical issues

Characters:
.Break cliche
.Making evil characters seem charming or stupid, so they seem less threatening.

Themes:
.Physical action over character psyche (reverse for psychological thrillers)
.Reality
.Perception
.Mind
.Existence
.Death

Suspense:
.Two or more characters preying upon eachother's minds.
.Use humor to break built up tension


Philosophical issues
(what all psychological films are based)

Metaphysics:
tries to define reality (Donnie Darko)

Existentialism:
humans free of control world becomes bleak, only rely on themselves (Pulp fiction)

Determinism:
Every event in which character is involved in is casually determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences

Fatalism:
whatever will be will be. Characters fight losing battle with fate (Final destination, Donnie Darko)

Ontology:
Tries to determine what truly exists. Characters find answers more confusing than question. (Fight Club)

Dualism:
The view that the world surrounding us is divided into two separate entities, mind and matter. Characters cant separate the two. (Fight Club)

Morality:
What is right and wrong. Listen to own conscience or social standards. (Saw I-V)

Moral skepticism:
Morals are always false. (Silence of the lambs)

Existentialism:
Man makes his own determinations of what is morality.

Nihilism:
World. human existence is without objective, meaning or purpose.



Notes on films:

Pathology
.Main colours. white, blue, grey, and black.
.white or bright blue lights, to create a sickly effect
. Music, violins, piano, bass.
. Intense lighting on face.

House of fears
.Teenagers
.Main colours. red, black, and yellow.
.Mirrors

The Room
.Teenagers
.Trapped in house
.Murderer hunts them down
.No motive
.Naturalistic
.Strange yet friendly occupants
.Masks
.Intense lighting on face.


Opening Sequence of scream
. Blond teenager
.Phone (gruff voice)
.Mirror
.Glass doors, reflective
.Phone rings (common scenario)
.Talks about scary movies (funny self reference)
.Home/safety, danger
.Corridors
.Hand on doors
.Running (violins, drums)
.Switching on and off lights

AS perliminary task editing

After filming we had to use Adobe pro to edit our scene. We started by doing the logging process. This meant that we watched all that we had fillmed (including outtakes) and log when a shot started and when it ended. The Logging document, also included Shot number, scene number, a brief description of the shot, and whether we wanted to use the shot or not.

During this process, we realised that we had forgotten to shoot a certain shot in black and white, and so in the middle of Capturing we had to go back and use the same shot that we filmed in colour, the first time around.

Using the editing suites effects, we had to change the shot to black and white. This caused problems, because I was wearing a different jacket when we filmed the first time around, and my hair was in a different style, so the continuity is wrong with this shot. Capturing is where you take the best shots from the computer and do a ROUGH CUT. A ROUGH CUT is when you take all the clips and put them into the correct time line order using VIDEO 1 and VIDEO2. During this process we altered the size of the shots so that after a character has said their dialogue, there is no long pause afterwards, and no one saying "cut" or "action."

Then, we Mixed sound levels, to make sure the sound in each shot is even to the previous shot. We had to fade the volume level at the end of each shot, and then turn it up at the start of each one so that the sound flowed between shots. We had to make sure the buzzing noise in the background was faded so it was almost inaudible










Evaluation:
During this task, I have learnt to keep characters inside the frame at all times, and the best shot sizes for certain events. I have also learnt how to caputre and cut shots to correct sizes during editing, and how to add effects and a title/credits.

Our whole group has learnt that continuity is very important, and we must be carefull to make sure every detail is in keeping with the previous shot, (e.g make sure their in the same position, inbetween short shots especially).

AS media preliminary producton task

Today we did our first attempt at filming. Origanaly we were going to use a blue, cold effect with the lighting, but as the lights in the drama room were temporarly broken, we had to rethink our previos idea. Myself and the other actor managed to get through alot of the scenes quite quickly as we were able to learn our lines quickly. We first shot the scene in long shots, the medium long shot etc so we would have every close up needed. We were fairly succesful with continuity but there were one or two shots that had to be re-filmed. When we watched back what we had done, we relised that we were mostly sucsesful, however there were one or two shots that needed re doing, for example, there was a long shot of a charcter walking into the room and sitting down, but she kept walking out of shot. There was also a shot where the camera was to high and made the actor look tiny in comparisson to the other actor. After re doing the scene we realised that there were many little mistakes thet may be difficult to fix, so we decided to re shoot the whole scene with more care, also we decided to shoot it in black and white so it would have a noir feel.

AS Media. peliminary prep

In the lesson as a group we typed up our script for our first piece of coursework, in the script ,two people exchange dialogue. Its meant to be short as the main focus is on the shots rather than the dialogue. We decided the that the scene would be a policewoman interrogating a criminal. When doing the script and shot list , we had to make sure that each shot matches the character taliking (match on action). After the script we wrote out our shot list which will help us with the story board. The shot list will tell us what each shot will consist of (i.e MCU, CU, ECU, etc). The shot list also includes how many shots there will be,what will happen in each shot and its location.
We then went to describe what would happen in each shot i.e what character, shot type, shot technique, etc. After the shot list we drew up the storyboard. This included 12 frames, one for each shot, with the technical details beside the frame. Example below.



We then discussed and typed up a risk assesment,, which assest an danger we may have at our chosen location (drama room). The risk assesment included risks to individuals, risk to the public and risk to the equipment.

We discussed what location would be best for our scene, we had to take into acount, light, noise polution etc. We decided on the drama room as it is dark and has spotlights. We also dicussed costumes for the characters. We decided the cop should wear smart trousers, black vest, and glasses. Mario (the criminal) should wear plain green t-shirt, black jacket, and a black hat (the bottom half of the costume did not matter as Mario would be behind the table throughout the scene.

AS coursework peliminary task

Risk Assesment
We started with a risk assesment on the risks that we might haft to deal with whilst filming in the drama room. This risk assesment consisted of risks to us,the public, equipment, and risks regarding people making noise etc whilst we were filming.We included the location we were in, the risks and the action we are going to take.

Storyboard
After the risk assesment we drew up the storyboard. In this we had a rough drawing of the shot with a breif description of each shot. The scene description included a scene number, shot number, character movement, shot sizes, camera movement, sound description and length of shot.


Shot List
We then did a shot list. This shows us the number of shots and what would be taking place in that shot. We included the location of the scene and the scene number .This will make it a lot easier when we are filming.

Script
We wrote out the script. This is the dialogue in the scene. It also includes the fictional location of the scene and stage directions for the actors. We then had to make sure that everything in the storyboard and shot list fitted in with the script.

Costume List
Lastly, we did a breif costume list, just for the actors, so they knew what sort of thing they needed to wear for filming.

Filming
In the lesson today, we started shooting, this was set in our drama room. The task went pretty well except a few shots which were not up to standard. And when watched back, seemed mostly the way we wanted them to look.We only had an hour so we didn't take too many of one shot, and with some we only had one take of the shot.We went through a range of different shots such as; close-ups, medium close-ups and long shots. We did a medium shot which was slightly too far away and should have been closer and lower down looking up at the actors. We also did a panning shot which didn't turn out as well as we'd wished as the actor was walking out of shot because the camara wasn't moving fast enough when trying to keep the panning smooth, however we had a long shot as backup.We will be re-doing some of our shots after school at some point to try and make some of the wrong shots correct.

AS coursework peliminary task

Today we had to do the location recce. Although the plan to take photo's of our set seemed simple enough it proved to be quite difficult. As we had chosen the drama room at kings langley school to be our set we had to wait untill no one was using it. Eventually we were able to take the pictures. We then had to line up the photos to create an acurate dipiction of the drama room. This proved difficult as it was near impossible to line all the details of the room together. After much persistance however the job was complete.