Feedback for final production

1) Camerawork

Point of view was effective.
Variety of shots was effective.
Close ups added intrigue.

2) Sound

Heartbeat added tension and suspense.
Diegetic sound, running, and a catchy soundtrack.

3) mise-en-scene

Restricted view of characters adds to thriller effect.
Made use of forest, thrillery.
Lighting was dark and tinted

4) Editing

Colour correction
Fade at the beginning
The title screen is very good.

5) Constructive critisism

Shot duration of the red room needs to be longer.
Repetitive use of camera angles.
The last static shot had no text.
Turn down the sound.
A more subtle use of colour correction needed.

6) Most effective element of the project

Sound added atmosphere
Point of view shots.

Analysis of opening sequence (Se7en)

Se7en (1995) is a crime drama mystery film, so it is not the same genre as  our film. However, there are many similarities between our psychological thriller and this crime film.

camerawork
the camerawork in this opening sequence helps to develop the genre. the shots are often of a long duration which causes the audience to feel the strangeness of the scenes involved.  when the shots arent slow and long they are very fast paced, which confuses the audience. a very large amount of the camera angles are extreme close-ups, this engages the attention and also makes you feel like you are watching something that you should not be watching.

editing

There are a lot of jump cuts, which add to the tension as they are very sudden changes, it makes the audience feel wary. when the titles appear there are flashes of light in which you can see an unclear picture. the titles also seem to shake which add to the strangeness. as well as this there are repeats of some of the credits which flash across. there is the occasional effect in which the subject of the picture seems to be blurring as it moves, i think this makes it seem as though the subject is moving faster but when you pay attention to it it is going at an ordinar pace. there are also alarming squiggles which appear and disappear very quickly.

mise en scene
the sequence contains scrapbook making, including needles, photographs, a book, the fingers working away creating a scrapbook, the shadow of the person. also when you can see the writing you can read stuff about pregnancy and transsexuals which combined with everything else causes these subjects to seem very creepy, especially as the character involved is crossing out soe words with a marker pen

sound

The sound in the Se7en opening is mostly non-diegetic music. The music is highly distorted, like the camerawork. This adds to the sensew of uncertainty and tension. The music fits the images shown well, with the credits.

SHOTS

SHOT 1 ETX. handi cam, almost a high angle shot, showing character which isnt established at this point, running through a forest, clearly running away from something but it does not show what exactly, panting sounds are used to enphasise the fact the character (victim) is running.

SHOT 2 ETX. further shots of character running through forest, but the camera tilted higher so that the location is established, same sounds as shot 1.

SHOT 3 NONE. white noise, with title sequence, first name of person in our group, with black BROKEN GHOST text.

SHOT 4 INT. over the shoulder/point of view shot of a different but also unknown character in a dark room (maybe walking around.. whilst) looking through photos, or paper cuttings, of the ''victim'', unusual sounds of character singing/humming, creating a pshycological feel.

SHOT 5 INT. close up showing photographs of victim, underneath non diegetic sounds of erie music, fast paced, to emphasise the genre of pshycological thriller.

SHOT 6 NONE.  white noise, with title sequence, second name of person in our group, with black BROKEN GHOST text.

SHOT 7 ETX. handi cam, much like shot 1, showing character running through forest with a underlying non diegetic sound, soundtrack created on garage band.

SHOT 8 NONE.  white noise, with title sequence, third name of person in our group, with black BROKEN GHOST text.


SHOT 9 INT.  another point of view shot, of the antagonist which still remains unknown walking around the dark room looking though the photographs.

SHOT 10 NONE. white noise, with title sequence, fourth name of person in our group, with black BROKEN GHOST text.

Micro Elements

Editing

Mise-en-scene

the location of our production helps to generate the genre of the film, set from the very beginning in a dark and desolate area, with strange and unusual lighting which makes the audience feel uneasy from the very first few moments. in this sequence you do not see the characters, but what you do see can help to establish the character types, you see the boy running through the forest, all you see is his shoes which establish that he is an ordinary person, fairly young as he is wearing white trainers, which could help the audience to decide whose side they think they ma be on for this film. they may feel sympathy as in this shot he is clearly in danger, which is shown by the way this character is running and panting.



Camera work
When filming our product we made sure that we did not use a tripod, we wanted a point of view, hand held camera to be used. To make a better effect, so the audience would be in the characters point of view. We got the idea from parts of 'Momento' and mainly the 'Blaire witch project' which is a little more horror then thriller however we wanted to see the effect it had on the audience, it would make them feel in the position of the suspect, running away from the antagonist, and also being in the antagonists point of view when in the dark rooms. There was not much camera work involved apart from the handi cam, because we didn't have to ensure any particular shots etc.

Sound
when we filmed our sequence we got some unwanted sound - wind, voices, background noises etc.. so when we were editing we removed some of these sounds, as they make our production sound unproffessional. We did, however, use some of the sounds we had such as the sound of the running, the dialogue etc, which helped to put across meaning in our opening, and gains the reality of the situation the characters are in. We also added in some sounds upon editing, such as the white noise inbetween clips, this heps to make the white noise very frightening, as the unnatural sudden lack of picture combined with the sound can startle the audience.

Digital Moodboard

 




 

 



By Michael

Font and colour scheme of title sequence.

INCEPTION

This shot of the title sequence from inception shows the colour scheme being simple, black and white, black background with white bold and in capitals writing so that it stands out and the audience is immediately drawn to it, because it is the production company name. The font looks simple and sophistocated perhaps trying to suggest the genre.

What we have learnt from Amar

Script writing

• Write all ideas
• Write it simple like so that everyone knows what the story does entail.

Writing your script

• Each scene should have a new paragraph
• Label with interior and exterior
• End with day or night to show what time it is.

Walkthrough

• Acting it out will help to identify problems
• Don't make it too complicated.

Location Recce

• When you find a suitable location, take lots of photographs to know where everything is.
• Source info, e.g location of toilets, car park, food etc.
• Think about filming location without background noise for dialougue.

Digital storyboard

• Take a variety of shots so background etc. is visible.
• How things look

Shotlist

• Always have shotlist, annotate script
• Tell story in the simplest way

 Sam, Michael, Saffron and Lindsay

Risk Assesment

Possible hazards or difficulties which we may comes across whilst filming, also health and safety risks we need to consider and be aware of whilst filming.

Film Company logo

Planning for Pitch Part 2 (Thriller Opening Sequence)

Characters
The main characters in our opening sequence do not appear in the sequence, they are not explored until later on in the film. The identity of the character in our opening sequence is unknown. We have decided to have it set out this way to add suspense from the very beginning of the film.

Suggested Locations
A forest implies isolation from civilisation, which scares the civilised person. A dark room is also a proposed location, as humans are generally afraid of the dark because it implies the unknown which humans are scared of.

Pitch

Narrative of opening sequence

• starts as a hand held camera (used for effect)
• shots of a unknown characters face, and feet, not giving away who the character actually is
• no introduction to any main characters
• running through forest- scene
• only dialogue is screams and ''help me''. 
• shots of a shadow lurking around in trees
• use of tv cutting out as a erie effect 
• insipred by 'blaire witch project'

Overall, its a pshycological thriller, with hints of mystery and perhaps horror. The opening scene starts with the title sequence (short) followed by a character which is unknown, panting whilst running through the forest, clearly running away from something but its not shown what, non diegetic sounds of heart beating, and shots of the characters face cutting in an out with the tv white noise, and also shots of s mysterious character looking through pictures, and negatives and newspapers,  as part of the title sequence. Nothing else of the narrative is revealed, the scene ends with the camera being dropped on the floor and the camera still recording.

Subgenre 

Conventions:

Psychological thrillers narrative usually contain a character with some kind of mental illness or issue, the thrillers usually contain twists in the film, also emotions or feelings are explored, also characters discovering reality, the core of the narrative is situated round the mind, themes of identity and also the characters are normally in search for their purpose. 

- From this we was hoping that through the opening scene the audience would be able to gather it has something to do with a psychological thriller, its all about mind games making the genre obvious, also with the main characters not being shown directly at the beginning of our film.


When thinking about the subgenres, we thought about what other thrillers made up come up with our idea, we found that momento and parts of blair witch project have helped us to construct our opening sequence. 
Looking at the opening sequence of momento you can see from our narrative ideas which parts we have came up with from inspiration.

Film production logo

Dreamworks

Lionsgate

Disney Pixar

Warner Brothers

A production logo is generally used by tv production companies, and movie studios to brand what they produce, they are normally seen at the beginning of a movie, or sometimes at the end of a television programme. Within movies they are usually played during, before or after the title sequence. The most famous film logos, are 20th centry fox, Paramount pictures, Walt disney pictures, Warner brothers, Dreamworks etc.

Soundtrack.

Thriller Soundtrack

Evaluation

We decided to use dark and intense sounds and beats to create our soundtrack, we wanted to create an effect so it made the audience feel tense, and maybe be able to relate this to the actual film for example things like 'jaws', the iconic sound of him coming. Which the audience can easily recognize. We hoped that our soundtrack would have a similar effect. Also being able to give an erie atmosphere, we also thought that it could be used for any kind of thriller for example, psychological because of the use of the piano, crime or action because of the percussion making it a little more upbeat and fast, like a chase scene, or even a political thriller because the sounds all added together make a good combination and could be used for political, because its got a range of high and low tones, also slow and fast paced sounds. We think our soundtrack is most like 'Catch me if you can' as its upbeat and fast in some parts and slower in others trying to show the character changing and running, and we think because of our soundtrack having fast and lively tones it makes it very similar.

B

Analysis of sound in thriller opening sequences.

Catch me if you can:


Sound within Catch me if you can
From the beginning of Catch me if you can it uses a non-diegetic background track to introduce the genre of thriller. It is fast paced and lively, but also adds a hint of mystery, its also used to go together with the images on the screen which is ''cartoon like''. Towards the end of the title sequence a sound bridge is used to lead it into the opening scene. It also relates to the genre of its Sub-genre Crime thriller, its fast paced and jumpy like the usual convention of a Crime thriller. The idea is meant to show a man being chased so this ongoing non-diegetic soundtrack shows this, and also the add of the boom at the end of the title sequence adds to the effect.


Surface



Sound within Surface
The sound used within surface is tense, and there is a part which uses a women gasping, and fast paced cuts of radio/ tv static sounds (white noise), also an underlying faded mysterious non-diegetic soundtrack which gradually goes up and down throughout the opening sequence. There is an almost dark aura to represent its genre of a psychological thriller. There is also short small sounds of thumping, doors squeaking, screaming noises it adds to the thriller atmosphere of the genre.


Se7en



Sound within Se7en
Se7en uses a non diegetic soundtrack to opening of the film, also harsh percussions to get a pulse raising atmosphere, aswell as using fades up and downs to add to the visuals at particular times of the title sequence, when there are visuals of the the photographs and writing there is a use of the tv static which seems to be commonly used in thriller film opening sequences to create tension and mystery. Also as these sounds are being played there is also a faded background track being played just softer and quieter then it started at the beginning of the sequence.


By Saffron Sam and Michael 

Openings of Panic Room and Rear Window

The opening of Panic Room consists of calm, areal shots of New York city, contrasting with the creepy dramatic music. After a time, the music becomes more fast paced, but still dramatic, which against the unfitting footage of a normal day in New York, creates an unsettling sensation. It implies that everything is not quite as it seems.
The opening of Rear Window consists of light, jazzy, energetic music with footage of blinds opening. It is perculiarly unfitting for the thriller genre, and seems to lull the viewer into a false sense of security. Both openings use unfitting micro-elements, but to create different macro elements.

Marking Criteria

Video
Level 4

• holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
• 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 viewer;
• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;
• using titles appropriately.

Research and Planning
Level 4

• there is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience;
• there is excellent organisation of actors, location, costumes or props;
• there is excellent work on shot lists, layouts , drafting, scripting or story boarding;
• there is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning;
• time management is excellent

This is the highest level possible to achieve for this unit, and these are the marks that we have given to the past students blog that we have analysed - Q1-07 from last year.

Research and planning
overall i have given this group a Level 4 for their blog although they had some elements of Level Three quality.

Video

• they have excellently held the camera steady where appropriate, and unsteady in appropriate places
• they have used a variety of shot distances, 
• it is very appropriate to the task which has been set
• there were a large amount of shot transitions, such as fades and such
• they have created a professional looking title sequence at the beginning, with a special 'jjr' productions logo sequence
• they have used sound with images and editing appropriately
• the soundtrack is very good, and very fitting for the sequence.

Planning and research

• they have done excellent research into similar products, what a thriller is, their potential target audience
• there is excellent organization of the actors, they have clearly thought hard about the setting of their preliminary task as they have pictures of other possible locations.
• they have clearly done allot of preparation as they have a rough plot idea
• they have planned what they are going to film in each session

By Lynsey, Sam and Michael.

Thriller preliminary task

 Saffron, Lyndsey and Michael

Evaluation Preliminary task.

What we learnt from the preliminary task.
From previously doing a childrens film preliminary task it made it easier for us to understand what we need to ensure of when doing the thriller task. Although we came along some difficulties we learnt from these, and we learnt that we need a more quiet area to film other wise there is too much background noise needed to be edited.In the future we will ensure that the area has minimum amount of noise, so that the dialogue is clearer. We also realised after filming that we needed to have better continuity by making the shots slow, buy not making them cut drastically, for example, close up, jump cut to extreme long shot. When using the lift in our task we found it difficult because it was hard to film without having the doors openeing and closing at the wrong time, but as a group we feel it worked well as it gave a good effect. Also we think that the use of background music which we added when editing gave a better effect as a thriller.

Camera work
Camera work was our main area of focus we tried to use many shots, to create better continuity by using things such as establishing shot, to show the audience the setting and the surroundings, we used reaction shots to emphasise emotion and expression. We used long shots to show everything in the mis-en-scene, we used over the shoulder shots to show the reader the characters point of view and what they are looking at, to make the audience feel more involved and more connection to the narrative. We tried to use high angle shots when looking at the victim to make it seem more vulnerable and show him as being weak, and inferior, and used low angle shots for the other character to show them as being more superior ( powerful, healthy, strong etc). We did not use any movement in our camera work, because we did not make it as if something was moving towards a character, or chasing a character etc. We tried to ensure eye level in our shots.

Mis-en-scene
The costume we used was basic, just to show ordinary characters, no antagonist or protagonist was being shown, mearly the body language is what set to show the victim (michael). The costume was modern although not stereotypical, it also shows the class of the characters, which would help to create realism for the audience. We did not use props as we felt it was not nessacary in our task because the story line was basic, but productive.

Editing
As a group we used basic editing such as background music to create an effect on the audience to make the genre of thriller more clear, also we added a small effect to the dialogue of the victim just to show his struggle to speak, which we wanted to emphasise as much as possible.

Sound
We mainly used diegetic sounds, such as the sound of the doors opening and general background noise and dialogue, we added some non diegetic background music. We muted some diegetic sound because there was too much background noise which was not needed because it made it difficult to hear things such as the noise of the button, dialogue and other general diegetic noises.

Improvements
In the future, if we had time to improve then we would use our time to continue editing things like the sound, and adding special effects to show more of a ''thriller feel'' to the task. Making it more of a mystery, so that the audience would feel they want to continue watching. Also we would try to improve on making the camera shots better and making them flow better so that continuity flows better, as we feel that our coninuity didnt work as well as we had hoped.


Sam and Saffron

Storyboard

This is our storyboard, which we had to change slightly, due to the fact we had the idea of a character walking down the stairs, and then opening a lift, so we changed this to walking down a corridor to the lift, we also cut out some dialogue and changed a few camera shots and angles.

Saffron Lyndsey and Michael