This is the first draft of our final product, overall we are happy with the product but feel some areas need some more attention in order to make the video exactly as we would like it to be.
Friday, 19 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Filming
Today, Sam and I began to do the shooting for our thriller opening; we were required to capture several shots including our actors to get the project underway. Before beginning filming we had to take into consideration the risk assessment that we had previously produced, meaning that we had to make sure all of our equipment was able to be carried in their original bags, and each shot we had to find stable land in which to stand the tri-pod so that there was no risk to equipment or us.
Firstly, we required a high angle shot of our antagonist walking up a path, with the camera being in the bushes it connotes that the character is being watched from an unseen person in the bushes, creating a sense of mystery. In our filming session we also got a variety of different shots including over the shoulder, low angle, and long shots. All of which are used to create different atmosphere throughout our opening. We also managed to capture 2 takes of each shot to make sure that we had a backup in case something happened to the primary capture.
During the 2nd take of our final shot the camera ran out of battery, despite being fully charged at the start of the session. Meaning that our filming session ended prematurely. Despite this setback we felt that enough content was captured.
Firstly, we required a high angle shot of our antagonist walking up a path, with the camera being in the bushes it connotes that the character is being watched from an unseen person in the bushes, creating a sense of mystery. In our filming session we also got a variety of different shots including over the shoulder, low angle, and long shots. All of which are used to create different atmosphere throughout our opening. We also managed to capture 2 takes of each shot to make sure that we had a backup in case something happened to the primary capture.
During the 2nd take of our final shot the camera ran out of battery, despite being fully charged at the start of the session. Meaning that our filming session ended prematurely. Despite this setback we felt that enough content was captured.
Friday, 26 February 2010
Thriller Genre Research
The thriller genre covers many different types of different films within that genre; all of these different films reach out to a range of different audiences due to a different range of content and conventions.
Various sub-genre’s include
Action thriller: This is the kind of thriller in which the main character or protagonist often has to have a race against time to save someone or something. This sub-genre often contains many scenes of violence, also an obvious antagonist. A prime example of this type of film would be James Bond.
Conspiracy thriller: This sub genre of the thriller film often involves a protagonist whom is facing a very serious or powerful enemy, which they only know about; a good example of this type of film is Three days of the condor.
Crime thriller: This particular sub genre is a hybrid, not only of thriller films but also the crime genre. Often, these films concentrate more on the antagonist in the film, rather than they do on the protagonist, the main film often being based around a successful or unsuccessful crime, the films normally include topics such as murder, car chases, robberies and shoot outs. A good example of this type of film is Asphalt Jungle.
Disaster Thriller: This particular kind of thriller mainly revolves around one big disaster within the film, sometimes a natural disaster, 2012 for example.
Drama Thriller: These films usually contain some element of mystery and drama, this particular genre of the thriller film is often much more slow paced than its counterparts, and example of this type of film would be the illusionist.
Various sub-genre’s include
Action thriller: This is the kind of thriller in which the main character or protagonist often has to have a race against time to save someone or something. This sub-genre often contains many scenes of violence, also an obvious antagonist. A prime example of this type of film would be James Bond.
Conspiracy thriller: This sub genre of the thriller film often involves a protagonist whom is facing a very serious or powerful enemy, which they only know about; a good example of this type of film is Three days of the condor.
Crime thriller: This particular sub genre is a hybrid, not only of thriller films but also the crime genre. Often, these films concentrate more on the antagonist in the film, rather than they do on the protagonist, the main film often being based around a successful or unsuccessful crime, the films normally include topics such as murder, car chases, robberies and shoot outs. A good example of this type of film is Asphalt Jungle.
Disaster Thriller: This particular kind of thriller mainly revolves around one big disaster within the film, sometimes a natural disaster, 2012 for example.
Drama Thriller: These films usually contain some element of mystery and drama, this particular genre of the thriller film is often much more slow paced than its counterparts, and example of this type of film would be the illusionist.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Risk assesment
This is our risk assessment, included in this assessment are possible risks that may occur when filming, what is at risk the equipment for example, and what we can do to prevent this risk.
1). What is the risk?
Bad weather such as rain/snow, this can cause damage to the equipment.
What is at risk?
Equipment (camera, tape)
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Keep the equipment in its protective cases at all times, when this equipment is not in use. Avoid filming in adverse weather conditions unless filming at that point of time is completely necessary
2). What is the risk?
Equipment being stolen – valuable school equipment being stolen by people hanging around the area, and also travelling to filming location.
What is at risk?
Equipment and crew
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Keep equipment on person at all times, do not leave the equipment unattended, make sure that each member of the crew has a mobile phone on their person at all times.
3). What is the risk?
Equipment being broken, for instance being dropped when filming the sequence
What is at risk?
Equipment
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Keep the camera screwed tight to the tri-pod when in use; keep the tripod in the upright position, so that the camera is not able to fall off. When the camera is not in use keep in the protective bag, and bag to be worn on crew members shoulder.
4). What is the risk?
Harm to us, rocky, unstable and muddy setting and landscape on journey to setting, simple trip can seriously injure both the crew and damage equipment
What is at risk?
Crew
What can be done to prevent this risk?
The crew must be careful when walking to and from filming location, make sure that we film on stable land, and make sure that rocks, unstable areas are avoided as much as possible.
5). What is the risk?
Equipment being lost, for instance dropping the tape on the floor when travelling to and from location, this could result in a loss of all our filming
What is at risk?
Equipment
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Make a checklist for every piece of equipment that is in use, for every time we use that certain piece of equipment. A new checklist to be made for every filming session. Double check this checklist to make sure absolutely every piece of equipment is present before leaving location.
1). What is the risk?
Bad weather such as rain/snow, this can cause damage to the equipment.
What is at risk?
Equipment (camera, tape)
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Keep the equipment in its protective cases at all times, when this equipment is not in use. Avoid filming in adverse weather conditions unless filming at that point of time is completely necessary
2). What is the risk?
Equipment being stolen – valuable school equipment being stolen by people hanging around the area, and also travelling to filming location.
What is at risk?
Equipment and crew
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Keep equipment on person at all times, do not leave the equipment unattended, make sure that each member of the crew has a mobile phone on their person at all times.
3). What is the risk?
Equipment being broken, for instance being dropped when filming the sequence
What is at risk?
Equipment
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Keep the camera screwed tight to the tri-pod when in use; keep the tripod in the upright position, so that the camera is not able to fall off. When the camera is not in use keep in the protective bag, and bag to be worn on crew members shoulder.
4). What is the risk?
Harm to us, rocky, unstable and muddy setting and landscape on journey to setting, simple trip can seriously injure both the crew and damage equipment
What is at risk?
Crew
What can be done to prevent this risk?
The crew must be careful when walking to and from filming location, make sure that we film on stable land, and make sure that rocks, unstable areas are avoided as much as possible.
5). What is the risk?
Equipment being lost, for instance dropping the tape on the floor when travelling to and from location, this could result in a loss of all our filming
What is at risk?
Equipment
What can be done to prevent this risk?
Make a checklist for every piece of equipment that is in use, for every time we use that certain piece of equipment. A new checklist to be made for every filming session. Double check this checklist to make sure absolutely every piece of equipment is present before leaving location.
Storyboard
Below is a description of our storyboard, as it is not as visible on our pictures, there are more shots to our storyboard, however they cannot be fitted onto the blog.
Shot 1: Camera is behind a fence looking at a path. Character walks past.
Shot 2: Camera is on the path watching the character walk away.
Shot 3: Camera is on a raised area looking down at the character walk over to and sit on a bench.
Shot 4: Camera is on a raised area looking down at the character on the bench. Character stands and walks out of shot.
Shot 5, 7, 9: Camera is at one end of a long path and the character at the other. Character walks towards the camera.
Shot 6: Insert shot of a doorway/opening to building.
Shot 8: Insert shot of a room. Camera pans.
Shot 10: Character walking along a path, starts running as sirens are heard in the background. Camera tracks character.
Shot 11: Character runs around a corner and past the camera.
Shot 12: Character runs half way down a path and bends over to catch his breath. Camera zooms in slightly.
Shot 13: Character walks along a pavement past houses. Camera pans with him.
Shot 14: Camera across a road facing a house. Character walks up to the house and enters.
Shot 15: Inside the house, mess everywhere, camera pans.
For further research and planning of our project we were required to create a questionnaire and gather results to find peoples preferred style of the thriller movie genre.
1). what do you think the best setting to the opening of a thriller movie?
A). City Centre (2)
B). Woodland (4)
C). Lakeside (2)
2). what time of day do you think is best for a thriller to be filmed?
A). Early Morning 7-11 AM (3)
B). Midday 12-1PM (0)
C). Late afternoon 4-9PM (2)
D). Late Night 10-12PM (3)
3). How many people should be in the opening to a thriller?
A). One (5)
B). Two (3)
C). Three Plus (0)
4). what do you think that character should be?
A). Antagonist (3)
B). Protagonist (5)
5). what should happen in the opening to a thriller?
A). Murder (1)
B). Stalking (2)
C). Mysterious (5)
6). should the opening reveal some of the plot?
A). Yes (5)
B). No (3)
7). should the opening of a thriller contain speech?
A). A little (3)
B). Yes (2)
C). No (0)
D). some in a sound bridge (3)
Our questionnaire was completed not only by students at the college but also older and younger people, the reason for this was to get a better overall view on people's perspective on the thriller genre, and what conventions people feel nessescary in the opening to a thriller
From the results of our questionnaire we are now able to show further research into our chosen genre, although some of our results did throw a few surprises.
From the results that we have received it can be concluded that dark and gloomy woodland would be the best location for the opening to a thriller movie, this is more or less the result that we expected from our audience, and this is beneficial for our planning, as we had planned to film in this kind of location creating a sense of mystery and tension amongst the audience.
With early morning and late night proving to be equally popular, this is one of the results that proved surprising, as both Sam and I felt that an early morning setting would not create enough tension and atmosphere required for our opening, and although late night would create thees conventions, it is extremely difficult to find light to film in at this time of days, and for those reasons we decided that late afternoon would be the best time for us to film.
The number of characters seen in a thriller opening had an unsurprising outcome, with the lesser numbers proving to be more popular, this is another convention that Sam and I thought would tie in with thriller conventions, and therefore decided to use a small number of characters (no more than 2)
The results show that the people we asked would prefer to see a protagonist rather than antagonist in the opening of a thriller, this is again surprising as our desired effect is tension and mystery, we want the audience to be able to familiarize with the antagonist as soon as possible. Due to the results we have decided to include both antagonist and protagonist in our opening sequence, this still keeps within our small number of characters convention.
The results also show that a mysterious opening, with little revealing to the actual plot proved the most populer, this ties in with the ideas that Sam and I have had about our production.
1). what do you think the best setting to the opening of a thriller movie?
A). City Centre (2)
B). Woodland (4)
C). Lakeside (2)
2). what time of day do you think is best for a thriller to be filmed?
A). Early Morning 7-11 AM (3)
B). Midday 12-1PM (0)
C). Late afternoon 4-9PM (2)
D). Late Night 10-12PM (3)
3). How many people should be in the opening to a thriller?
A). One (5)
B). Two (3)
C). Three Plus (0)
4). what do you think that character should be?
A). Antagonist (3)
B). Protagonist (5)
5). what should happen in the opening to a thriller?
A). Murder (1)
B). Stalking (2)
C). Mysterious (5)
6). should the opening reveal some of the plot?
A). Yes (5)
B). No (3)
7). should the opening of a thriller contain speech?
A). A little (3)
B). Yes (2)
C). No (0)
D). some in a sound bridge (3)
Our questionnaire was completed not only by students at the college but also older and younger people, the reason for this was to get a better overall view on people's perspective on the thriller genre, and what conventions people feel nessescary in the opening to a thriller
From the results of our questionnaire we are now able to show further research into our chosen genre, although some of our results did throw a few surprises.
From the results that we have received it can be concluded that dark and gloomy woodland would be the best location for the opening to a thriller movie, this is more or less the result that we expected from our audience, and this is beneficial for our planning, as we had planned to film in this kind of location creating a sense of mystery and tension amongst the audience.
With early morning and late night proving to be equally popular, this is one of the results that proved surprising, as both Sam and I felt that an early morning setting would not create enough tension and atmosphere required for our opening, and although late night would create thees conventions, it is extremely difficult to find light to film in at this time of days, and for those reasons we decided that late afternoon would be the best time for us to film.
The number of characters seen in a thriller opening had an unsurprising outcome, with the lesser numbers proving to be more popular, this is another convention that Sam and I thought would tie in with thriller conventions, and therefore decided to use a small number of characters (no more than 2)
The results show that the people we asked would prefer to see a protagonist rather than antagonist in the opening of a thriller, this is again surprising as our desired effect is tension and mystery, we want the audience to be able to familiarize with the antagonist as soon as possible. Due to the results we have decided to include both antagonist and protagonist in our opening sequence, this still keeps within our small number of characters convention.
The results also show that a mysterious opening, with little revealing to the actual plot proved the most populer, this ties in with the ideas that Sam and I have had about our production.
Mind map
For the initial step of the planning I and Sam were required to design a mind map to outline what we hope to achieve during the project, where we were going to film our opening, characters we were planning on using, initial ideas for the storyline of the opening, camera shots and angles that we were planning to use and some editing techniques we may use during the production.
After producing an initial mind map outlining our ideas for the project, it was decided that we would produce a further mind map, in more detail to describe some of the choices we made and the effect that we hope they would have on the production.
In the mind map we included these different sections.
Characters
We decided on our mind map that we were going to use as little characters as possible, so that the audience is able to familiarize with that character or characters, I do not believe that this effect is possible with more than 2 characters.
We also decided that the characters would be dressed in dark clothing, to make them appear sinister and mischievous; it also helps the audience realise that the character depicted in the action is the antagonist.
Setting
We decided that for the opening shot of our sequence we wanted a bushy woodland area, with fencing, we would use this for a high angle shot through the fence, with the camera amongst the bushes, this gives the effect that the antagonist of the opening sequence is being watched by someone hiding in the wilderness.
We also decided that we would use some raised levels for a setting, this is so that we would be able to get some low angle shots on the characters, making them appear small and worthless in the eyes of the audience.
Camera
For the camera angles and shots throughout our opening we have decided to use pans, low angle and high angle shots, all create an effect that we hope to achieve.
We would also like to use insert shots during our thriller, to add tension to the sequence as we see a crime that the audience presumes the antagonist is responsible for, however. We do not want to reveal any of the actual plot for what would be the rest of the film. We feel that this is an important convention to our opening.
Editing
Although we have not yet fully decided on the editing that we would be using, we did decide on a few effects that we hope to include in our sequence to add a sense of tension and mystery.
These include
- Eye line matches – this is so that the audience are able to see things from the characters point of view and again help them to familiarize with that character.
- Fades and dissolves- we will use these transitions to give our video a smoother flow, straight cuts throughout would give the sequence a more of an action packed feel, and this is not the effect that we require for our opening sequence.
- Slow paced editing- again, we do not want our opening sequence to feel to action packed and fast paced, despite some thrillers using fast editing as a convention, this is not our desired effect. This is because our opening sequence is mainly based around familiarisation, with the setting and the characters; we also hope to build tension amongst the audience, and a sense of mystery, as these are big features that people want we can gather from the results of our questionnaire.
After producing an initial mind map outlining our ideas for the project, it was decided that we would produce a further mind map, in more detail to describe some of the choices we made and the effect that we hope they would have on the production.
In the mind map we included these different sections.
Characters
We decided on our mind map that we were going to use as little characters as possible, so that the audience is able to familiarize with that character or characters, I do not believe that this effect is possible with more than 2 characters.
We also decided that the characters would be dressed in dark clothing, to make them appear sinister and mischievous; it also helps the audience realise that the character depicted in the action is the antagonist.
Setting
We decided that for the opening shot of our sequence we wanted a bushy woodland area, with fencing, we would use this for a high angle shot through the fence, with the camera amongst the bushes, this gives the effect that the antagonist of the opening sequence is being watched by someone hiding in the wilderness.
We also decided that we would use some raised levels for a setting, this is so that we would be able to get some low angle shots on the characters, making them appear small and worthless in the eyes of the audience.
Camera
For the camera angles and shots throughout our opening we have decided to use pans, low angle and high angle shots, all create an effect that we hope to achieve.
We would also like to use insert shots during our thriller, to add tension to the sequence as we see a crime that the audience presumes the antagonist is responsible for, however. We do not want to reveal any of the actual plot for what would be the rest of the film. We feel that this is an important convention to our opening.
Editing
Although we have not yet fully decided on the editing that we would be using, we did decide on a few effects that we hope to include in our sequence to add a sense of tension and mystery.
These include
- Eye line matches – this is so that the audience are able to see things from the characters point of view and again help them to familiarize with that character.
- Fades and dissolves- we will use these transitions to give our video a smoother flow, straight cuts throughout would give the sequence a more of an action packed feel, and this is not the effect that we require for our opening sequence.
- Slow paced editing- again, we do not want our opening sequence to feel to action packed and fast paced, despite some thrillers using fast editing as a convention, this is not our desired effect. This is because our opening sequence is mainly based around familiarisation, with the setting and the characters; we also hope to build tension amongst the audience, and a sense of mystery, as these are big features that people want we can gather from the results of our questionnaire.
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