Wednesday 16 February 2011

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Top tips for filming

The following filming techniques will be portrayed in our film "Hunted"

Editing

We wanted to film in the dark for our final work. as this was a difficult as we don't have the professional equipment. therefor we have decided to discolor our work and edit it to be darker so you get the effect of the darkness and it being tense because of the colour of the film.

Music

We wanted to create a mysterious, ery atmosphere so we decided to use the song "hurricane" by 30 seconds to mars. The opening of the song is powerful with a piano ballard which creates tension and a mood towards our opening scene. The video also shows thriller which adds to the

Final Cut Pro Tutorial Basics: What Where When



I felt this post would be a useful additional piece of research, as it clearly teaches clear instructions of which will be invaluable when editing a rises.

Aditional Reseach- A detailed description into how to create a thriller

How to produce a thriller?

Develop a simple but cinematic story and script establishing the needed sense of danger for the main character and the other characters in the movie.
Common thriller story holds include suspense-filled chase scenes, "whodunnit" plotting that allows the audience to wonder who killed a character or who committed the crime in the story, shocking sounds and visuals that surprise the audience every now and then. This is shown within in our video when the killer pops up behind the protagonist in the bathroom scene. 


  • Solidify the characters in your story in order to justify how they react to the many conflicts around them.this is evident with in the psychological aspect of our protagonist, and the recurring dream he has in the end leading to his schizophrenia. 



  • Allow the camera to take on human qualities during the shoot by letting it roam around playfully in your various shots, also creates strong continuity, shown when the protagonist is scene fleeing the murder scene and also the point-of-view shot where the camera works like the eyes of the character. This allows the audience to share the same view of the scenes the way the character sees it.



  •   High variance of editing, tight and long shots, short and long takes and moving and stationary shots to visually provide an effective succession of images, emotions and ideas.



  • Use sound, music and silence to evoke the needed emotions in every scene. Generally, a loud bang after a long established silence with only the sound of footsteps heard creates a feeling of being restless, nervous, tensed or alarmed.



  • Our Target Audience

    Our target audience for "Hunted" will be from ages 16-30 (young adults - adults). The reason why we've chosen this age range is because we feel our film is appropriate for these ages because is has a lot of elements which include mild violence discreet language. This links to following films;
    • Inception - A psychological thriller that gets the viewer involved in the storyline, which is what we are intending to do. We aim for the viewer to become attached to the story and intrigued to see how it progresses. This links to our target audience as it has similar elements and attaches the audience.
    • PhoneBooth -A thriller based around murder that doesn't have gore which is the same as our thriller, and the captures the audience intently. The viewer wants to find out how it ends and you feel some passion towards him. This is similar to our target audience as it protrays a similar storyline as people are taken hostage and are threatened to be killed. 
    • Memento - A psychological thriller about a man who has a memory disability who wants to find out who killed his wife. To remember things he tatoos quotes on his body and takes polarode pictures. This connects to our target audience as it shows similar violence and language. 
    To conclude, Our target audience matches conventions of other thrillers such as the above. 

    Friday 11 February 2011

    What We Learnt From Amar's Blog

    From looking at Amar's blog, we learnt a number of key points to gain extra marks towards our Thriller opening.

    A key thing we learnt from the blog is that planning is essential. From planning, we were told, we can either get ourselves a lot of marks, or lose ourselves a lot of marks, and planning counts towards a lot of our final mark and will help us in efficiency when making our film opening sequence.

    There are a lot of different essential items that need to be covered before creating a film. The following blogs that we have completed shows that our film planning is up to date and will allow us to film efficiently and effectively;
    • Thriller Final - Initial Ideas
    • Thriller Analysis
    • Different between thiller and horror
    • Analysis of THriller opening tounds
    • BBFC Classification
    • Opening Soundtrack
    • Production Logo
    • Script
    • Mise En Scene for "Hunted"
    • Research - So what actually is the difference between horror and thriller
    • Top 5 - Thrillers Currently
    • Location Recce
    • Shooting Schedule
    • Test Shots
    • Whilt Thrillers Thrive
    • Digital Moodboard
    • Font and Colour research of title sequence
    • Marking criteria task

    Marking criteria task

    Overall for our tak we would like to be getting levels from 3 to 4 trying to get the highest marks we can get.

    Video:
    Level 3 -
    • Framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate.
    • Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate.
    • Shooting material appropriate to the task set.
    • Selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting.
    • Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewers.
    • Using varied shot transition and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set.
    • Using sound with images and editing appropriately for task set.
    • Using titles appropriately.
    • Holding a shot steady, where appropriate.
    This is the marking criteria we are hoping for, for our video production 'Hunted'.
    so far we have covered, over half of the bullet point of this criteria.  What we need to do left is to sort out the titles appropriately used and using sound with images for effects.


    Resurch and Planning:
    Level 4-
    • There is excellent research similar products and a potential target audience.
    • There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costume or props.
    • There is excellent work on shot list, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboard.
    • There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
    • time management is excellent.
    Overall our group think our planning is in top condition and hope to get a level four. there is only one thing we need to do to get this grade is to keep on blogging posts appropriate with our thriller opening.
     

    Font and Colour research of title sequence.

    Our logo for our title sequence for Hunted  is intended to be dark, mysterious but bold to stand out. It is intended to be jagged and borderline horror, but with thriller elements included.

    9An example of what we are looking for is the '9' logo which is also a thriller movie. The logo for '9' is bold and jagged and is also slightly horror looking but looks like a thriller logo as it doesn't suggest any upcoming gore. The glow and colour of the logo contrasting the dark background makes it stand out and look bold, as we are planning to do with our logo. 




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    Another example is Inception. The logo for Inception has a light background with black writing, making the text stand out. The background being lighter makes the attention drawn to the detail put into it, with it looking like a maze, it suggests the storyline of the film could be similar to a maze.





    Picture 1
    However, Phonebooth is an example of what we aren't looking for as it has a lot going on in the background and it looks more like an action than a thriller. However, it is similar to ours in the way that the text is eye catching and stands out in contrast to the background.



    Tuesday 8 February 2011

    Why Thrillers Thrive?

    Thrillers thrive because they capturvate the audience. It portrays a sense of escapism. Thrillers are more itracute, whole hearted and are easily understood whereas horrors have to be toned down to be accepted by the public.

    Thrillers thrive more than horrors because they lack in gore, whereas horrors focus on showing blood and other things that will make the audience uneasy. Thrillers are different because they make the audience want to engage more in the story, rather than see gore. Thrillers have the effect to make the audience be on "the edge of their seat" and they want to know what happens next, and instead of making the audience scared, it makes the audience excited and become attached to the story and are intrigued to find out how the story progresses.

    To conclude, thrillers thrive more because they engage and capurvate the audience and every detail is very intracute and is accounted for, making the story flow. As the story goes on the audience become attached and don't feel as much as a viewer but more a part of the problem and resolution of the story, whereas with a majority of other films, the viewer goes for a sense of escapeism but with thrillers the viewer is engaged.

    Test Shots

    Shooting Schedule

    "HUNTED"

    1:00 pm Pick up equipment from college

    2:00 pm Get to Bretts house

    2:30 pm Go to scene locations and test shots.

    3:00 pm Shot 1 filmed (location 1)

    3:20 pm film shot 2 and 3 (location 2)

    3:45 pm shots 4,5,6,7 (location 3)


    4:15 pm 8,9,10,11 (location 3)

    4:45 pm BREAK (check through footage)

    5:30 pm shot 12, 13 (location 4)

    5:45 pm shot 14,15,16 (location5)

    DONE!!

    location 1 - PUB

    location 2- BOTTOM FEILD

    location 3-  TOP FEILD

    location 4- OUTSIDE BRETTS HOUSE
    location 5- IN BRETTS HOUSE

     

    Friday 4 February 2011

    Location Recce

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    This is where Victim 1 is walking after being at the pub.


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    This shows the time of day of the scene.


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    This is the field that is cut across as the sun is setting, showing darkness coming in the scene.


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    This is the location for the chase scene/where victim 1 is being murdered.


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    This is another location for the chase scene of victim 1.
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    Wednesday 2 February 2011

    Top 2 - Thrillers Currently.

    The following list of thrillers are the current top 2 according to IMDB ( international movie database);

    1) 127 Hours - The story is about a man of whom out participating in high octane adventures and sports come a stuck when falling down a chasm and consequently leading to his arm being trapped as a bolder has fallen upon it this leads to the daunting prospect has he plucks up the courage, using a blunt pen knife to chop of his own arm. The thriller aspect of this film can be seen where he is venturing into the un known and gripps the audience about how he come to the decision to chop off his own arm.

    2) Inception - A film featuring the emmencely overated actor that is leanordo DiCaprio, suffice to say its a very far fetched film with the genral synopsis going somewhat like this its about a thief who possesses the power to enter into the dreams of others, and preety much steals there ideas. and thats about that, the thriller aspect of this dull and monotenous film comes from the pyschological aspect and the fact the audience are gripped as well as this it featurs other typical thriller conventions such as that of suspence and both antagonists and protragonisits.

    Reseach - So what actually is the difference between a horror and a thriller ?

    So what actually is the difference between a horror and a thriller ? , yes that is the question of to which i have been posed and to many the line is fairly blurred but through this blog post i wish un blur the line by which is currently blurred.

    For this we take horror- The one of which we have chosen is that of the blatant horror 'Friday the 13th'
    As well as a thriller of which is the much loved phone booth
    After analysing the opening scenes of both we have come up with a few similarities and differences.

    Similarities: 
    The opening scene introduce the main characters in both for eg in phone booth the main character and in Friday the 13th there is an insight to to main characters specifically 'Jason' the killer.
    There is also for both a strong introduction to the location, in the horror the forest crystal lake to be precise as well as although a bit more vague the fact its set in new york for the thriller phone booth.

    Differences:


    The death scenes are maximised and prolonged, also no relationship for the victims can be built up as the murders are so quick etc.




    Summary:

    I feel from in depth and prolonged research i feel that a thriller is a movie based on suspense, showing especially the victim's point of of view. To me, horror is more about showing "horrid" things on screen such as murders or torture. The suspense in a thriller does not necessarily result in gruesome acts.

    Mise En Scene for "Hunted"

    The Costumes for "Hunted" are as follows:

    Killers - They will wear white masks to cover their identity this shows mystery and fear, black hoodies to convey a sterotypical dangerous gangster with the typical white trainers to show that its modern.



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    Victim - They will wear casual everyday clothes, treating it like a normal day. E.g. Jeans, trainers and a jumper.

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    The Props for "Hunted" are as follows:

    We will use guns to show a age and a sense of modern day violence, typical kitchen knives for a typical thriller weapon.



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    The Sound for "Hunted" are as follows:

    The soundtrack we will embark on is 30 seconds to mars - Hurricane. We have chosen this as it creates a suspense and with the lyrics coenside with whats on going in the scene. We felt it fitted with the genre because it creates an atmosphere which fits with the scene. 

    The Editing for "Hunted" are as follows:

    We will be using several Long/Mid shots to emphaise the chase scene, hand held/over the shoulder shots to show the point of view of the victim as if you were in their shoes and reactions shots to convey a thriller atmosphere.

    Digital Storyboard

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    Victim 1 leaving pub



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    Victim 2 being attacked by two hooded figures






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    Reaction of Victim 1



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    Victim 1 witnessing the attack/murder



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    Victim 1 falls over out of shock


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    After being spotted by the attackers, Victim 1 runs away


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    The attackers go after Victim 1

    Tuesday 1 February 2011

    Script

    "Hunted" Script

    Man emerging from pub alone clearly had a drink,
    (Long Shot)
    after emerging he leaves and walks down the road before briefly stopping and hesitating about walking through the forest,
    (Mid Shot)
    after a brief moment he commences to walk into the pitch black forest.
    (Long Shot)
    A shot of two murders and a victim pleading for her life is shown through the undergrowth
    (Point Of View Shot)
    with the victim letting out a scream startling the man on his way home inquisitively he crawls through the trees to get a better look
    (Mid Shot)
    and is startled by seeing an execution and falls back in shock this in turn causing the masked murders to spot the fact they have a witness
    (Reaction Shot)
    and exchange a few orders and disclamitries between eachother
    (Long Shot/Over Shoulder Shot)
    before springing into action and chasing the man back to his house through the undergrowth.
    (Hand Held Shot)

    Upon entering his house and escaping the masked figures he goes into his bathroom
    (Mid Shot/Long Shot)
    and splashes his face with water.
    (Mid Shot)
    As he stands he closes the mirrored door on the cabinet revealing the masked figure behind him.
    (Mid Shot)
    At this point the screen goes black and the title "Hunted" comes on screen.
    (Title)

    planning

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