thriller stills and prints screens

wasted thriller opening final

rough cut of thriller

Last Lesson Of Editing

This is our last lesson to edit our film and we need to:

• Edit the font of the credits
• Put the voice over onto final cut and in the right place
• Add the music from garage band
• Make it a quicktime

These are all the things we have to do to finish our thriller opening, we will have enough time to do all this in this lesson as well as watching it through to make sure everything is exactly how we want it and tweaking parts of it.

review of feedback

We had a lot of feedback saying that our film needs a bit of rendering, there was one short clip that wasn't rendered, so we can render that next time we edit.
We also had feedback that sound was needed, we have created our soundtrack and need to add it to our film. We also have recorded a monologue that is read by Josie to read over the top of the soundtrack, this will make the storyline clearer and should put an end to any confusion.
There were a couple of comments about the cuts. They could be slowed down, and we will try that out next time we edit.

group feedback

Good feedback-
Q1-10 -
Good use of cuts from Josie running to scenic view. Very effective.
Q1-09 -
Nice establishing shots.
Q1-08 -
Nice setting, good shots. Gripping clips of murder? Interesting.
Q1-07 -
Very, very good cinematography. Great flashing shots. Thrills, good.
Q1-12 - Good establishing shots, nice angles.

Constructive Criticism -
Q1-10 -
Film needs a bit of rendering. Add soundtrack. Cuts are quite fast, slow it down a bit?
Q1-09 -
Cuts need to be modified.
Q1-08 -
Of course the sound is needed. Needs more rendering
Q1-07 -
Needs some kind of soundtrack, something mysterious? A little too confusing.
Q1-12 -
Storyline needs to be more clear. Sound needed.

Editing Day Two

Today we have to give in our rough draft. We plan to put the credits in the begining of the film opening which we have already finished editing, record our voice over and also make a track on garage band for the begining of the opening.

Evaluation

We have to evaluate our project when we are finished here are the questions:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Editing Ideas

We decided to make the clips of Josie running in black and white and then flash the slightly distorted ones quickly in between long shots of the countryside. We decided to make them black and white so they are more disorienting to the viewer as they cant see what is happening that well and will also stick out more with the scenic shots. We also used the shots which we filmed by having martin follow Josie running with the camera these shots are quite shakey and confusing. we also had to speed up some of our shots for example the whip pan shot as otherwise they are too slow.

Script

I timed how long it would take me to read the script with the result of 36 seconds, we will edit our film to incorporate this, and adjust our footage accordingly.
We are also making a soundtrack in garageband and after the script has been read over the top of it, the music will then heighten and do all the talking.

review and change of script

Death. What is death?
Is it that moment where everything becomes over-exposed. Your vision blurs and your mind flashes to memories that you once felt were beautiful. What is beauty?
The comfortable village of Orwell, surrounded by vast, green fields. This obscure village, was the place I called home.
The gentle brushing of leaves in the summer… the sky so vivid it felt like it was falling, the whole village teeming with life and energy. The houses pretty, the neighbours friendly. This village was the perfect place to live.
However, last autumn, that all changed, for what once was safe, has reflected your insanity.

We have changed our script as we decided not to film at night. We orignially had a poem that was written about the night, and i have cut the script and written to replace it. I will speak the script to find out how long it is, and compare that with how long the rough-cut film is.

Credits

After disccusing where and what we want our credits to lok like we have decided that we will put them in between shots probably using a black background and white rating, rather then putting them on with our film as a background. we will put the title 'wasted' on the last slide after a clip of josie laying on the floor.

Editing Day One

In this lesson we are editing our film to put it together, we only have one more lesson untill are rough cut deadline. Which we need to give in our first rough cut of our film including the credits, soundtrack, ident, voice over and effects. We already have the ident and written down what credits we are going to do. We have checked our story board to see if we have all the shots we need and edit them into the right order, however we may put some of the running shots earlier on. This lesson we plan to get most of the editing done of the film and next lesson we will add the credits and voice over.

Review of Filming

We filmed are running shots in the woods and it went well, we made sure not to get any of the road or the camera equipment in the shots as this wouldn't look good. We also made sure we used a variety of creative shots for example match-on-action and canted angle shot to make are opening more intresting. We now have lots of film to play with and edit as we made sure that we kept the camera running between shots.

Todays filming

Today we're filming the running shots, we've looked through all our test shots to choose what angles and techniques we liked and are going to recreate. We're then going to come back and sort through the footage we already have and start editing to create a rough draft.

Film Title

We have decided on the title for our film, we will call it

'WASTED'

We decided on the title wasted as a one word title is catchy and punchy. We picked 'wasted' as in our film a young life has been wasted, and it also makes the viewer question what the film will be about, e.g "What has been wasted?" or "Who is wasted?"

Poster Analysis

This poster for the dark knight is very good and it makes it clear to the audience that it will be a thriller by using mise en scene of batman's black suit to look not like he is such a good guy compared to posters of superman who wears bright colors and looks strong and attractive. It also uses dark blue and black cloudy sky in the background so you can anticipate that something bad will happen in the film. The fire in the shape of batmans symbols could represent him being beaten as it is on fire and looks as if it is burning down the building. Also it is a red that really sticks out and draws your eye to it compared to the rest of the poster that uses dark colours, and the colour red could represent danger. It also uses dark blue coloured and a bold plain font saying 'welcome to a world without rules' letting the audience know that they are going to go against the normal society. The poster also makes the audience ask alot of questions and doesnt give too much away of what will happen in the film.

Filming Problems

There where not to many problems apart from the weather. It made ground conditions harder to use and some shots were to shaky to use and it was hard finding a safe spot for Josie to lie on the ground were she wouldn't get to wet, dirty or stung by stinging nettles so we used a bin liner to put under were she is laying. other than these concerns there where no serious problems.

Target Audience

We plan to make are film aimed at teenagers and young adults so ages 15-30 and aim to make it certificate 15 or 12A as we researched the guidelines for and it wont invove strong language sex or nudity or violence. I think our thriller will appeal to males and females however probably more to males. It would appeal to people who like other thriller films such as brick and no country for old men as we used these films for research and have used similar style as they did, for example no country for old men starts of with lots of picturesque land scape shots which we are planning on having in our opening.

Filiming in a little village

On Sunday the 29th of February we started filming some scenes in the village of Orwell. the weather was a mixture of cold winds a rain showers, in some ways this complimented the atmosphere we were trying to create, but also made it difficult having to make sure no damage would be done to the camera or ourselves. the majority of shots we did included Josie being a dead body and trying to create beauty out of something horrific. we used a number of different shots that verified between long shots, close up and extreme close ups. We found areas with snow drops she could lie in to make it look partly beautiful.

Review of filming day 1

Yesterday i went out to film the landscape shots that we will use in our thriller, i was able to be driven round to film, which gave me a strong advantage as to where i could go. I experimented with lots of different camera angles, and i got some good shots.

Weather Forecast

The weather forecast for this weekend is of importance because in order to get our shots we need good weather, as it has to look beautiful and picturesque.
However we decided that rain could look good as it will fit in well with the idea of death and we could make it look beautiful, the only issue is using the camera equipment in the rain which we will be able to overcome by using umbrellas to protect the camera.

Music Ideas

We want the music to start of subtle and slowly become more disturbing and tense as the opening goes on. i think the opening part of this track would be a good starting point because its sounds beautiful but sad at the same time (starting shot will be off the charter being dead) this track has helped me to realise that it can be simple still but still emotional.

Tips on Filming at night

We are going to film a shot of the dead girl at night, as this fits with our script, so we decided to watch some videos with useful hints and tips to help us use the correct lighting

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-shoot-film-night-202614/

Music Testing

We have been experimenting with different sounds and tones in garage band to help created the right atmosphere. we need to create something that compliments the beauty of the scenic shot but also something that will go well with the panic and chase shots.

Test Shots 2

Make-up testing

This lesson we are trying to make realistic looking bruising using make-up. we got ideas from videos we previously posted.

test shots

Filming

The mojority of our shots are set in the village of Orwell, so this being a rather small village with little transport links, we've found it hard to arrange a time for us to film. However, we have managed to book the camera out for the 27th and 28th in which we will try to film as much as we can in the little time we have.

Ident video

our final ident in animation with music

Making our Ident

We first made our ident using photoshop ( there is a post further down describing what we did)
After this we then put it into final cut express to animate it. We used the earthquake effect to make our ident shake.
I created a soundtrack for our ident on garage band, using synthesizers to give it a cool edge.
We then rendered this with our animated ident and the we converted it to quicktime.
We can now use our ident at the beginning of our thriller opening.

Test Shots

This lesson we are going to do some test shots of our running scene, we will do this so we have practice with the cameras and can plan how we are going to film this scene and what angles work well to build tension through out the scene.We are going to try different things to try and get the effect we want, so we are going to try running with the camera after her (to try and put across her fear), we also are going to try to do a far off shot to see how that would look, we are also going to try to do it so she runs past the camera in a messy fashion. We will post up our attempts afterward so we can evaluate and chose which effect we want.

Location

mise en scene

For Josie's characters hair and makeup -
We decided that her hair should be natural and not tied up or in any style as she will have been running so it will need to look messy. We will accessorize it with twigs and leaves in the ends of the hair, as if they have caught there when she has been running.
Her makeup will be fairly natural around her face, maybe some dark eye-makeup to hilight her eyes. She wont be wearing blusher as shes meant to look dead. To carry on the dead look she will be wearing pale foundation and we can enhance her paleness with a filter in final cut. She will also have bruises on her arms and maybe her face created with eyeshadows and streaks of mud.

Here is a video tutorial that we watched to inspire us on how to create a bruised look.

John Carpenter's Halloween opening and John Carpenter's The Thing opening analysis (thriller/horror)

The opening to Halloween is incredibly simple but is just as effective as any thing else. All it dose is play music and show a pumpkin getting closer and closer as each credit comes up in time with what the music is doing. The combination of the tention building music and pumpkin getting closer is another to keep you on the edge of your seet waiting to see whats going to happen after the credits ares shown, it forces you to ask whats going to happen after this.



The opening to The thing is another one that just asks a lot of qeations in one go, why are these people shooting a dog? who are they? why was the a space ship at the the start? and were is it now? it just gets you interested in what the story might be and the charters involved in the event that takes place at the start and what the consequences of there actions might be.
It uses scenic shots to start of as our group is planning to do.
i know this also more of a horror film but both films take elemts of thrillers.

List of equipment we will need

• Camera
• Tripod
• Flowing Dress
  
• Make up
• Jewellery (Dangling Earrings)
  
• twigs and dirt for hair
  
• Spare Battery - for camera
  
• Mains adapter - for camera
• Tape - for camera

This is the type of dress we have in mind, hopefully we will be able to find something similar.

Blue Velvet Analysis

Blue Velvet inspired us in our attempt to make the opening of a thriller.
The trailer itself shows a beautiful 'American Dream' community and town, and then shows the dark truth about it. It is filmed to show beauty the whole way through, but then towards the end this beauty is corrupted by death. That is the idea that we liked so much.
It is also filmed in vivid colours which looks great.
This works well as an opening to a thriller because it makes you wonder what other secrets this 'perfect' community has to offer.

Credit Font

We've been looking at fonts to use for our credits and title for our opening we got some examples form the website www.dafont.com
these are the ones we are considering:

planning locations

Locations

• The forest in Long Road College
• Orwell, the Clunch Pit/ Leden Hill field
• The stream in Orwell rec
  

Permission?

• Forest - No permission needed
  
• Orwell Clunch Pit / Field - No permission needed
  
• The stream - Orwell rec is a public place so no permission needed
  

planning roles - actors

Actress

• Josie - Girl who is dead
  

Suitability

• Josie will be suitable for this role as she doesn't mind getting muddy and wet in the dirty surroundings and the stream. She also has experience staying still for a long time. As well as having long hair which will look perfect for the shots we have in mind.
  

Deadlines

11th Jan to 15th Jan: Thriller introduction.

18th Jan to 22nd Jan: Analysis of real and student examples/ Production logos.

25th Jan to 29th Jan: Planning and delivery of pitches.

1st Feb to 5th Feb: Storyboarding, shot lists and other planning.

Cameras are available from Friday 5th Feb at 4.10pm until shooting deadline of 9am Monday 8th March. Students can have 2 overnights or one weekend to film. There are three weekend slots available ( 6th & 7th Feb, 27th & 28th Feb and 6th & 7th March).

8th Feb to 12th Feb: Filming.

15th Feb to 19th Feb: HALF TERM. NO CAMERAS OUT.

22nd Feb to 26th Feb: Filming and editing.

1st March to 5th March: Filming and editing.

8th March to 12th March: 8th March Shooting deadline. 2nd lesson of this week is Rough Cut Deadline. Third lesson of week, rough cut feedback.

15th March to 19th March: End of second lesson of the week is Final Cut Deadline. Last lesson of the week, feedback on final cuts and re-introduction to Evaluation questions.

22nd March to 26th March: 9am 22nd March is Interim writing deadline. Lessons this week are for feedback on interim drafts and revisions/writing.

9am 29th March: Final writing deadline.

Microphone

We are planning on trying to get a microphone to use for the non diagetic naration in our opening. as the microphones on the cameras we are using don't have a very good microphone, so we think it will sound better if we record it seperatley and play it over the top of our filming.

music influences

i was thinking because we are going for a scenic style of opening we need a calm gental opening. this bit of music from "my bloody valentine" is on the same type of style i was thinking of, starting of calm and beautiful but creepy in a way. Then for it to build up the tention and go into a fast pace panik tune and then by the end of it to go back to how it stated then fadeing out.

Credits

Credit sequence:

1. A Lucky Boy production
2. Cast- Josephine Lee
   
3. Cast- Carl Lemming
   
4. Cast- Julian Hudson
   
5. Costume design and Art directions- Ceri Hughes
   
6. Production Design- Julia Thomson
   
7. Casting- Jilly smith
   
8. Film editing- Jessica Carlisle
   
9. Cinematography- Christopher Johnson
   
10. Original music- Martin Taylor
    
11. Produced by- Ceri Hughes
    
12. Directed by- Julia Thomson
    
13. Main title- ??? Yet to be decided
    

Filming Tips

We brainstormed filming tips to keep in mind for when we are filming our opening and here are some key ideas we came up with, we will try and make sure we remember them all while filming our opening sequence:
1)Think about different shot types
2)Keep organized - time, using a good shot list
3)Plan ahead
4)Shout out shot number before each shot/take
5)Lights, Camera, Action
6)Organize roles - swap if necessary
7)Think about the distance with camera and sound

Storyboard

Brick

We have studied the opening of the film 'Brick' in depth and it has given us the basis of the subgenre we want to film and ideas as to what we will actually film. Brick has a scene that shows a death as something beautiful and the way it is filmed really makes the viewer overwhelmed and astonished by how beautiful it looks and sounds etc. We really liked this as a group and it has given us many ideas, and this will show throughout the opening.
We decided to film a beautiful death in the style of Brick.

Where we will film

This is where i will film some of the scenic shots that will make up our opening sequence in the Village of Orwell.

A bit about camera shots and the opening.

although most of our shots are of countryside, we aim to make this exciting for the viewer and visually dynamic as we will be using pan shots as well as 360degree turn pan shots to really accentuate the beauty. We also hope to have a fast paced scene in which we will adapt to the documentary genre and have a handheld camera following the girl as she runs and falls and stumbles. This will also add a sense of urgency and panic to our thriller opening

Mise En Scene for our Thriller

Costume - the main character in our filming will be played by Josie and she will be wearing a flowing dress as it will blow in the wind and should hopefully work well if we lay it in the water.
We are planning on using stage make up to give Josie cuts and bruises for the scene when she is laying in the stream to let the audience know she has been hurt and is in danger and to add more questions which thrillers consist of. She will also be wearing pale make up to show that she is dead
The fact that she is wearing a dress represents that she is girly in the sense she dresses and it will accentuate how vulnerable she is, it makes her the damsel in distress.



We researched into how to do cuts and bruises and here is an example of a video we looked at for ideas on how to do stage make up.

Planning the filming

There is dispute as to where we will film our scenic shots as the times we are allowed to take the cameras out of college are limited. We have a few ideas of areas, such as a village called Orwell, but we want to film at twilight and transport to get there after college wont allow this, the only way to film it is if we take out the camera for a weekend.
We have decided to try and take the camera out over the weekend after half-term, whilst we are waiting to film this, we can search for more locations and create the garageband soundtrack as well as recording the dialogue. We can also research into make-up to make the body (Josie) look dead and injured so that when we film this it will look realistic.

no country for old men opening analysis

The opening to "no country for old men" starts with sceneic shots of the location this tell the audience were the events will take place. The location its self is a very barren and empty place. the voice over is brilliantly written and performed. He tells us about his life, past and what it means to be a cop in that area and how he was facinated by the men who came before him and lern from them. then he tells us how he had to sent someone to the eltric chair and how the media trys to make the criminal sound diffrent to how it is and the crimnal actuly told him how it was and that he do it agene if given the chance and he would go to hell for it. he also says how you have to be willing to die to do the job and put your soul in hazard and just say okay ill be apart of it. this tells us that the charcter has seen and exprienced things that could break people down and that he is strong willed and has a good moral code he lives by. We also see an arrest happening were it sets up the film, who is the man beaing arrested? why is he beaing arested?

This is the first draft of the script i have written for our thriller.


Death. What is death?
Is it that moment where everything becomes over-exposed. Your vision blurs and your mind flashes to memories that you once felt were beautiful. What is beauty?
The comfortable village of Orwell, surrounded by vast, green fields. This obscure village, was the place I called home.
The gentle brushing of leaves in the summer… the sky so vivid it felt like it was falling, the whole village teeming with life and energy. The houses pretty, the neighbours friendly. This village was the perfect place to live.
The night, however, is a frightening place to be. Not because of increased risk of stumbling on unseen ground, Or even the shadows cast by ordinary objects that scare young children. No, the dark is frightening, The darkness of night is madness, for what once was safe, Has reflected your insanity.

Idents

We created a number of idents using photoshop and this will feature at the beginning of our thriller opening. We decided to use the black and white shaked effect for our final ident.

Writing the script

today in our lesson we are writing the script for our opening. Our idea for the piece is to have a monologue over the top of the action. We want this monologue to be emotive, as to link with the filming behind it. We looked at poetry to try and get some inspiration for the monologue, we decided to use a couple of verses from this poem called "Don't go out when its dark" written by one of the members in our group.

The night is a frightening place to be.
Not because of increased risk of stumbling on unseen ground,
Or even the shadows cast by ordinary objects that scare young children.

No, the dark is frightening,
For creatures lurk around every corner;
And the monsters of one's mind run rampant.

The tick of a clock becomes growling,
And candle flames the sharp teeth of vampires.
Light pixels morph from murderers to mummies.

The darkness of night is madness,
For what once was safe,
Has reflected your insanity

We thought a couple of the stanzas from this relate to our ending to our opening. We also looked at the opening monologue to American Beauty as it is in the same style.

Film Classification

Rated 18

Suitable only for adults
No-one younger than 18 may
see an ‘18’ film in a cinema.
No-one youngerthan 18 may
rent or buy an ‘18’ rated video.

15 Certificate

This is the classification for a fifteen film from the British board of film classification (bbfc).

Suitable only for 15 years and over. No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory

language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not

promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily

accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,

aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic

or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and

self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be

copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example,

‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be

acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated

use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without

strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a

non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.

There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour,

but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable

unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is

sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is

appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction

of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to

be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also

unlikely to be acceptable.

There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence

but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and

have a strong contextual justification.