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.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
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.
Friday, 12 February 2010
The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight
The scene starts as we are able to see a series of visual effects to draw the audience into the story, and make them pay attention to the start of the movie.
As the scene begins, the camera zooms slowly into a glass filled sky scraper; this gives the connotations of a big city, and gives the audience an insight into the setting of the rest of the movie. The camera continues to zoom slowly into the skyscraper; from there we are able to see one of the many glass windows blown away from an antagonist on the inside of the building. This again creates narrative enigma, just as in the opening of No County for Old Men, as the audience are left to wonder who the antagonist is, why he has a mask and why he is carrying a dangerous weapon (features that are very common in the genre of the thriller)
From this shot of the broken window, we see a straight cut to another member of the antagonist gang standing in the middle of the pavement, holding the prop of a clown mask in his hand, we are again left to wonder why the man does not have his mask on, and why we should be so interested in this particular character. Yet, none of the plot to the main storyline is revealed during this. The camera also pays particular interest to the clown mask prop that the character is holding, and the audience are left wondering why this particular clown mask is so interesting.
Throughout the clip we can hear the ambient sound of the hustle and bustle of usual city life, again giving the audience an insight to the setting in which the film is going to be set, it also gives the antagonists in the clip the connotations of braveness as they are willing to undertake what we believe to be a serious crime in pure daylight in an extremely busy city centre.
(I was unable to embed the video into my blog as the embedding was disabled by request on the YouTube website however, the link for the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OYBEquZ_j0&feature=related )
The scene starts as we are able to see a series of visual effects to draw the audience into the story, and make them pay attention to the start of the movie.
As the scene begins, the camera zooms slowly into a glass filled sky scraper; this gives the connotations of a big city, and gives the audience an insight into the setting of the rest of the movie. The camera continues to zoom slowly into the skyscraper; from there we are able to see one of the many glass windows blown away from an antagonist on the inside of the building. This again creates narrative enigma, just as in the opening of No County for Old Men, as the audience are left to wonder who the antagonist is, why he has a mask and why he is carrying a dangerous weapon (features that are very common in the genre of the thriller)
From this shot of the broken window, we see a straight cut to another member of the antagonist gang standing in the middle of the pavement, holding the prop of a clown mask in his hand, we are again left to wonder why the man does not have his mask on, and why we should be so interested in this particular character. Yet, none of the plot to the main storyline is revealed during this. The camera also pays particular interest to the clown mask prop that the character is holding, and the audience are left wondering why this particular clown mask is so interesting.
Throughout the clip we can hear the ambient sound of the hustle and bustle of usual city life, again giving the audience an insight to the setting in which the film is going to be set, it also gives the antagonists in the clip the connotations of braveness as they are willing to undertake what we believe to be a serious crime in pure daylight in an extremely busy city centre.
(I was unable to embed the video into my blog as the embedding was disabled by request on the YouTube website however, the link for the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OYBEquZ_j0&feature=related )
No Country For Old Men
No Country for old men opening
As the clip begins, the audience are able to hear a narration over a pan of the landscape. This already creates a narrative enigma for the audience, as they wonder. Who is the narrator? And what part does this man play throughout the story? Throughout the narration, the character reveals information about his life and what he does for a profession. This narration helps the audience familiarize with the character, however no main plot is revealed, other than the facts about the man’s life. The narrator’s voice is also somewhat soft and comforting to the audience, this allows the audience to see that the man is the protagonist in the story, and is therefore someone that we the audience should look up to and support throughout the story. As the narration is ongoing the audience is able to see a pan of the landscape, in order to familiarize themselves with the surrounding landscape.
The first camera shot we see is a long shot of the landscape in either a late night or early morning setting, we then see a straight cut to another shot of a different part of the landscape. Although a straight cut may give the connotations of action and messy editing, this is not the case in No Country for Old Men as we get a sense of continuity.
Straight from the beginning of the clip the audience can see that the setting of the clip is not of the modern day, we are able to see old styled hair and clothes on the first characters that we come into contact with as we see a police officer in an old fashioned style Police costume, and also the antagonist of the film, with a very old fashioned ‘bowl cut’ again, the introduction of these two characters create a narrative enigma for the audience, as we wonder who the antagonist is and what he has done in order to be arrested.
Towards the end of the clip the audience is able to see a crane shot, as it follows the Police car down a hill, during this crane shot we the audience are allowed to see the surrounding landscape and setting of the movie, but again this insight does not reveal any of the plot to the story, but we are however able to see that the surrounding area is very rural, and due to the accents heard in the narrative voice over, we are able to presume that the story takes place in a rural part of America.
We are also able to see during the opening sequence the antagonist of the film being placed under arrest, this is a common connotation of the thriller genre and something that the audience have come to expect.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Tuesday 2nd February 2010, Final lesson
For our final lesson, the main task was to complete the editing. The group had already completed most of the editing the final thing to do on the video was to add some effects to help the video flow better, and to engage the audience.
Firstly, we added a black and white effect, not only did this remove the glare from the lighting that we did not want, but it also made the whole scene appear more sinister. This sinister feel again engages the audience and gives them a warning that something bad may happen to the pizza boy character. We also decided to add some disolves to the video, to help the flow and feel. We could have used all straight cuts, however we decided that the end product may look messy and this was not the effect that we wanted for our final product, instead we used some fades as well as dissolves.
After we had completed the video with the desired effects our only task left was to upload the video to YouTube and embed the link into the blog.
Overall I feel that the video works extremely well. Although some of the shots we use do not remain consistant this is not extremely noticeable, and the black and white effect that we used help remove lighting errors we had such as glare, and characters appearing too colourful in what was supposed to be a dark and spooky scene.
Thursday 28th January 2010, Lesson 4
Due to our completion of the filming process in the previous lesson, we were required to begin the editing stage of our product. We uploaded our different shots to the T drive on the school network, so that we were able to access the product on all of the computers, and open it in Adobe. Firstly, we had to rename the different clips so that later on in the editing stage we wouldn’t be confused as to which clips we required. We then arranged our shots into the correct formation, before we started any of the actual editing process. Once this task was completed, we cut down each shot to the size we wanted, removing any unwanted acting errors for example so that our final product would look professional.
After we had our shots arranged into the correct order and cut down to size, we then decided to add a variety of effects to our product. We used a variety of effects such as a dissolve transition, we decided on using this effect simply because it helps the video flow and feel more like a real life situation for the audience, and helps them to understand the situation. Whereas constant straight cuts would make the final product look messy, this was not the final effect that we desired on our video. Although we completed more of our editing than we envisaged in the lesson. We did not complete the product as we hoped, and would have to continue with the editing process during the next lesson.
After we had our shots arranged into the correct order and cut down to size, we then decided to add a variety of effects to our product. We used a variety of effects such as a dissolve transition, we decided on using this effect simply because it helps the video flow and feel more like a real life situation for the audience, and helps them to understand the situation. Whereas constant straight cuts would make the final product look messy, this was not the final effect that we desired on our video. Although we completed more of our editing than we envisaged in the lesson. We did not complete the product as we hoped, and would have to continue with the editing process during the next lesson.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Tuesday 26th January 2010, Lesson 3
Our overall aim for lesson 3 was to continue with the filming process with a hope of finishing the shots that we required to make our final product. Although we accessed the footage that we had produced in our previous lesson, however the characters in the production were not wearing the same costumes as in the previous session. This problem was easily combated however; we simply decided to borrow items of clothing from other members of our class that were similar to the original costumes that we had been using.
For this section of the production, we decided to re-shoot some of the footage which we had taken in the previous lesson, due to a lack in quality of the footage that was shot. Again we included shots such as shot reverse shot, over the shoulder shots and tracking shots. We also used an eye line match, so that the audience is able to experience the fear that is instilled into the pizza boy character, as he realises that the front door is wedged open, the hope for this shot was that we were able to install a sense of fear into the audience, for this sequence, it was decided that the pizza boy character was to be murdered. To make this look as authentic as possible, we decided to use fake blood to make the whole situation seem more realistic and engage the audience into the footage.
For this section of the production, we decided to re-shoot some of the footage which we had taken in the previous lesson, due to a lack in quality of the footage that was shot. Again we included shots such as shot reverse shot, over the shoulder shots and tracking shots. We also used an eye line match, so that the audience is able to experience the fear that is instilled into the pizza boy character, as he realises that the front door is wedged open, the hope for this shot was that we were able to install a sense of fear into the audience, for this sequence, it was decided that the pizza boy character was to be murdered. To make this look as authentic as possible, we decided to use fake blood to make the whole situation seem more realistic and engage the audience into the footage.
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