Brainstroming the thriller genres- Monday 15th December

Thriller genres

In todays lesson we looked at all thriller genres and sub genres.

• Psycholgical


• Super natural


• Crime- Polictal thriller, Goverment coruption


• Action


• Acquired identity - stealing a dead persons identiy


• Spy thrillers


• Kidnaping


• Innocent on the run


• Good vs Evil


• Muderous


• sci-fi

Also in todays lesson we anylsed six thriler clips from various differnt movies. The movie titles were

• The Shinning


• What lies beneath


• Arlington road 1 and 2


• collateral


• 28days later

when watching these clips we took notes on lighting, location , narrative etc. I felt that this lesson was very important as this could apply heavily on what i might want my group thriller opening to look like.

The Bourne Identity - Thursday 11th Decemeber

Today's lesson was the introduction to the thriller unit.

We discussed the suspense sequences and how it is vital to have the main points for a thriller.

• Posing a question to the audience (people in jeopardy)
• unfolding of narrative
• complications
• false resolution
• question answered
• people no longer in jeopardy

In today's 2nd part of the lesson we watched the very popular film The Bourne Identity which is a thriller also. While watching the movie we was asked to make notes of the examples of a suspenseful moment. After the film was done we were asked to feedback our examples to the class.

My example was when bourne realised he had put the family he was staying with in danger, he quickly ushered the family members into the basement and ran outside on his own with a gun. I think this caused suspense as we couldn't see any of the people after bourne but just hear the gun shots. Also the music was very racy and uptempo which added ecxitcment to the scene.

Finshing off prelimary film- Monday 8th December

Last lesson i enjoyed filming but as time was against us we had to continue filming this lesson also. since we concentrated on filming for most of this lesson, unfortunately we didn't get a lot of time in the editing suite. I found editing really interesting as i have never done it before, Rebeca also taught us to save every 2minutes using the command keys. This trick would help us in a worst case scenario of our computers shutting down. I learnt how to log and capture which i got the hang of really fast and i also learned how to put the scenes together properly.

Even though we didn't get to finish our editing i still think our finish thriller was still good. From this practice task i think it has helped me a lot to prepare for our course work thriller. and now i have worked with the camera and editing room i feel more comfortable with it

First filiming exericse - Thursday 4th december part2

After planing our story board we were given time to start filming with our groups. At first it was hard remembering all techniques and suitable camera shots we learned from the tutorial i soon grasped the concept. Because of my height i also found it hard to use the tripod but it became easier handling the camera. Our plot was setting was the colleges main hall. A college student who would seem to sitting down normally on the chairs reading an newspaper. she would suddenly change the newspaper page and see a disturbing article about an rapist on the run. She would also later realise that the rapist is in the college. As the plots develops its becomes clear that the rapist has come for her and knows her identity. His now main ambition is to catch her!

Even though i was not in any of the shots i was able to do some filming. At first i found this difficult as i was worried i as doing every thing wrong, however watching the play back it looked very good for my 1st attempt. When filming i also had to remember the 5second rule which i found somewhat hard.

The main type of shots i felt my group concentrated on was tracking, panning and over the shoulder shots. I Think this combination of shots helped our plot line build suspanse.

We did not mange to finish all our filming on that day due to timing but we did get a lot of great footage but would still pick up were we left of in Monday's lesson

First filiming exercise (Preliminary exericise)- Tuesday 4th december.

Today we had two parts to our 3 hour lesson, the two parts were:-

• A camera tutorial
• Planning our first filming task

I found the camera tutorial very useful as it can be difficult at times to operate. This camera tutorial included us learning how to:-

• Insert the battery
• Attaching the camera to the tripod correctly and securely
• Turing the camera on and off
• Health and safety
• Focusing
• Panning
• Staicit
• Recording and play back

Planing our preliminary exercise we had to construct our sorry board and also make our news paper story. Geralld was in the picture with a hood up and looking very suspicious. he was posing as an on the run rapist. Our main aim that we wanted for this task is to show suspense.

29th january

In this double session we re-planned our thriller as the majority agreed it was not a feasible idea. During the couple of days prior to this date i came to the conclusion that it would be far better to just have a simple idea but portray it in an interesting way. With this in mind we eventually came to the decision that we would in fact have a simple idea; this was that a man seemingly injured is running through a forest  and that is all. However, we would portray this in a very interesting way by filming in interesting and various angles. 

26th january

Filming our first thriller

this session we began filming our thriller, although we did not have time to do as much as we wanted we decided to film flashbacks. However, as we reviewed our footage i found it utterly unsatisfying and we then eventually decided that we could not use it during the following days.

the shots were unrealistic, the stalker was far to close to the victim to not be realised. And the shot angles were primitive and far too simple.

2/2/09 and 5/2/09 (editing)

Editing our thriller part 1

Once we had filmed our footage we then decided we should now edit, we used professional editing software called final cut pro. We uploaded our thriller on to this software. Wing then sorted the clips in ascending order and put in to the appropriate folder, for example (match cuts, handheld, static shots, and angled shots) by doing this it will make selecting the clips slightly easier. Once this has been done we can now put the clips on to the storyline. Once the clips are on the storyline, we decided to cut the shots into segments, which might create an uneasy jerky effect, which the group agreed on. We also joint the appropriate match cuts to make a continuous sequence. We also inserted the angle shots and a solarise effect. This effect will be on selected sequences and as the clip is played the effect will start to flash faster and faster which is part of creating suspense. This first attempt is just to see how the thriller would turn out; we wanted to see if it would have the continuity. Unfortunately, it did not and therefore we had to re-think on where to place the sequences of clips.

The second attempt

On this attempt, we thought very carefully on where to place the clips, we managed to put the clip sequences in the correct order because there was that continuity in which we wanted in our thriller. In addition, the effects worked excellently with the clip and overall created a lot of suspense. We still have a bit more filming just for the match cuts once this has been done it will be inserted.

5th february

Cut and log and editing

in this session we began initially by cutting and logging our footage, this was a long and tedious 

job but it was obviously a necessity. As we cut our footage we came to realise we had more than enough and we thought this a good thing as it would mean we would have a lot of footage to play with.

eventually when we came to edit our pieces together i had organised the clips in folders, categorising them between the angles they were at and special events etc. By doing so it made creating match cuts easier- however, we came to realise that because our opening was very simple we had to make certain that there was a sense of progressive continuation. For example, during one clip it portrays me running towards a camera but for the sake of building suspense we had interrupted this every so often with other clips of me running but at different angles, we had to make certain that where we had interrupted this clip, it would smoothely follow where it had left off.

After criticising and redrafting what i had edited over and over, we eventually came to  a point where we were satisfied with what we had, however, there is always room for improvement.

9th february

music editing and credits

in this session because we had scarcely finished our editing, though we would like to review this again, niquita and riahna began creating and developing upon a sound track suitable for our thriller. They achieved a more than competent sound track as they did not use actual instruments for the soundtrack but rather scratching sounds. This gave a very surreal and thrilling effect and layered upon our thriller it produced a very noticeable good effect.

As they were doing this i finished, rendered and placed the credits, though i did not put the credits in an actual place i had just wanted to see how long our thriller opening would be if they were in it. For the credits we understood that it did not matter what they said who did what so we simply just wanted names under directed by etc, for example although i had starred in, directed and also had significant input in the camera work i did not put my name under all these titles. My other group members also played these roles however small or otherwise.

At the end of the lesson i came to realise that perhaps the font of the credits were not suitable as they moved in a floating like way and in too slow a pace, which spans away from the fast beat involving pace of our thriller- i would need to change this at a later time.

31st january 09

Filming part 1

As our first thriller idea did not come as planned, we were slightly behind schedule with our filming compared to other groups. So to make up for this we decided as a group to meet up on a Saturday and start filming our new thriller in queen’s woods. This forest was very spectacular because it was very dense which we wanted it to be, because it is important to have the correct environment for this type of clip. Before we started, any filming Wing who is the main character had to put his injury makeup on to make the filming a bit more effective. He puts scares on his face, arms and he even manages to make scabs on his on his arms which look really realistic at least in the film having these injuries would make the audience assume that this character has been struggling for some time. When we were all ready niquita and reahna went to look for a good place to film. Once this has been found we then started to film. Wing would be running through the forest and we have to take different shots and angles of him. When the filming was completed these are the types of shots we managed to do, handheld, low angle, close up’s, tracking, static shots, and some high angled shots. In this particular day, we managed to do a lot of filming which was very useful when coming to do the editing. In a couple of days we are going to return back to queens woods to do a couple more match cuts which is needed in our thriller apart from that we are on schedule.

Saturday 31st january -Filming session

Over the past two weeks we have been trying to think of a right location to film our thriller opening. our thriller location needed to be very dense with wood land and not a lot of buildings around either. We had several choices of parks/woods.

• Epping forest


• Queens wood


• High gate woods

We ruled out Epping Forest due how far it was and we also considerd that it may be too dense. so we decided to film in queens woods.

when we got into the woods it was about 3pm so the natural light was starting to dim. we searched around for rigth setting as wing (main actor) would need a running path. wing make up was done on the bus ,by him and looked rather professional. he had fake blood on his face, cuts and buries all over his arms.

while wing was getting ready me and Rhianna went looking around our surroundings as we have never been to this forest before. we also looked a what areas were worth our filming time.

we took several shot of wing ruining though the woodland and we took this shot from alot of different angles. At one point i actually had to climb a tree with the camera in my hand , and film it from that angle. we also manged to get some shots from floor level, tracking and static.

We even developed our storyline as we went along. instead of wing ruining from nothing, it is later developed that a man will appear when wing falls down.

match Cut Practice

12/1/09

Today i was unwell so i could not participate in the lesson, unfortunately this would mean i would be behind on the thriller project, however, i believed i could rely on my other group members for the time being, thus i would be able to catch up on what they had done.

I had thought about what my thriller should go like if i had it my way; i wanted to begin with a small establishing shot from the top floor of a building. This shot will track a man as he makes his way to the front door. As he does so a thrillingly dressed girl watches him as she is alone in a grim dark room. For this idea i had also produced a storyboard; i had also desired to put the nursery rhyme ring a ring a roses in the background- so far this was my idea.

Editing and creating A sound Score For our thriller

Lesson:9/2/09

In todays lesson the main focus for our group was to finish editing our footage taken from our filming session on 31/1/09 and to start on creating a sound score for our thriller opening.

Filming 31/1/09

in the lesson befor wwe had drawn up a new story board and shot list to guid us during the filming this also gave us some structure into how we would shoot and the type of camera shots and angles we would use.This was a new synopsis as we found that when we were filiming our intial idea that it didnt work so well.

Here is a Breif plan into what we where aiming for in this filimning session

PLAN

Synopsis: character A is running through a forest being chased character B but we do not see the mistery charcter B until character A falls over the end of the opening sequence

Location:Queenswood forest, Highgate (along the 43 bus route)

Props:Steel cap boots

Examples from shot list:

Shot type-Long shot, Description of sound and action -character a running through the forest sounds:footsteps

Shot type-Low angle shot,Description of sound and action -Character A falling over

soubds:stumbling

Shot type -point of view shot/tilt,Description of sound and astion-Charecter A lookin up at Character B

we had all agreed to meet up on the saturday at angel tube station so we could travel to Queenswood forest together.once we had reached our location the first we had to do was explore the forest and find an ideal place to shoot for our sequence ,wher there would be minimal distraction and an area that was almost isolated so there was less of a chance that passers by could not intervene with our filming as this was a public park.once we had found the area were we