We use storyboards to plan out each shot that will be used during our two minute clip, so that when it comes to filming we have a precise plan of what we need to film and can easily have enough time to do it in. The storyboards also make it easy for people to understand the storyline without needing to view it in its completed film version. Storyboards are a rough guidelines to help us not get distracted from the story that we are trying to portray when we are filming. Each frame contain the different information needed for that shot. It will include what the image (what is in the shot), the shot number, type of shot, shot length and what happens in the shot.
Props: We will not be using any solid props at all during our opening two minutes, this is not conventional of a thriller film. The only object we will be using is ketchup as blood.
Lighting: The lighting will be very dark and gloomy as it is inside the forest and to keep with the dark themes of the film, this is very conventional of any thriller film as it builds up suspense and keeps the audience on the edge.
Setting: The dark forest setting is a typical setting of more psychological and crime thrillers where murders and conflict can take place.
Colour and Costume: The costumes worn by the girls will be very dark and simple with no bright colours at all as the forest setting will be made dark as well, the only other colour is the red of the blood trail and make-up. The contrast between dark and one brighter colour is a typical convention of many darker thrillers.
Make-up: The make up worn by the girls will be red blood and also some black make up on their faces. Also we will edit our eye color to make it red as this will make it more spooky.
Comparing our mise-en-scene use to another thriller such as 'The dark knight'.
Props: The dark knight uses a lot more props than we are going to because they obviously have a lot more funding than we do so they can afford it and also The dark knight is also an actions film whereas our isn't so we don't need all the extra things.
Lighting: Both The dark knight and our 2 minute clip use dark and gloomy lighting to set the scene an make the viewer feel tense.
Setting: the setting we have chosen compared to the dark knight is very different. The dark knight is set in the city where there is a lot going on, but our movie 'The Sin' is set in a rural village where not much happens. We have chosen to film in a forest, there is no filming done in a forest in the dark knight.
Colour and Costume: Our costumes are going to be plain and simple whereas in the dark knight there costumes are formal and more high tech, such as The bat suit. Both films have costumes that are dark colors.
Makeup: Both movies have one/two people who have odd makeup on. In the dark knight the joker has a'worn off' clowns face paint on his face, in 'the sin' Leah and Ellie will have dark eyes with fake blood on them to make it seem creepy. Ben, like many characters in the dark knight, will have no makeup on, just hisnatural face.
After thinking about our ideas again before drawing up our story boards, we decided that we would not use the idea of Ben being the policeman looking through the pictures but only use the two girls. We decided to do this because after watching our thriller opening sequence, we discovered that not all of the main characters are introduced in the first two minutes but most of the credits and some action is shown. We also thought that it would be more effective if we only used the dark scenes at the beginning rather than keep switching to light and day because it would make it more spooky and it would make it easier for the audience to understand what was happening. Our sequence would obviously be shorted after cutting out Ben's parts so we decided to include more shots of the girls and we are also going to use a picture of the girls that will be edited on photo shop as the very last thing you will see in the two minute clip. This last image will also include the title "The Sin".
We will be comparing the protagonists and antagonists from our film to those in Transporter 2. Protagonists: Our protagonist will be a police detective who uses more logic and patience to solve the problems, while Frank (the protagonist in Transporter 2) uses more violence and aggression to solve the problems in his film. They both wear smart clothes through the majority of the films even during more violent scenes.
However they have different reasons for solving the problems of the films, as the police detective will want to solve it as he has an ambitious desire for solving the mystery and protecting the rest of the male population from the antagonists, this reason fits with the conventions of a crime thriller. While in Transporter 2 Frank's reasons for wanting to solve the problem a more a for a character of the opposite who is in peril which drives him forwards. Antagonists: Our antagonists are two sisters who sleep with and then murder teenage boys for revenge and pleasure, typical of a crime thriller. The antagonist in Transporter 2 (Lola) uses guns and violence to prevent Frank from succeeding in his problems, typical of an action thriller. However Lola is under orders from a higher leader (Gianni) while the girls in our film are not under any orders. The girls in our film will wear more simple dark clothes with not much facial emotions, However Lola wears brighter clothes with a lot more emotion. In both films though the antagonists are enemies of male protagonists.
Were we going to keep the identity of the girls hidden?
Who would film?
How would we make sure it is a thriller and not a horror?
What would we include in the two minutes?
We answered -
The two young girls (Leah and Ellie) would wear black leggings and a plain back top. They would also have dark make-up on to keep with the dark theme of their personalities. The policeman (Ben) would be wearing a formal suit like any other policeman.
The identity of the girls would not be hidden from the audience but it would be from the other characters in the movie. We are going to do this becasue the audience can see both sides of the murders.
We would all take it in turns to film depending on who is in the shot. We will make sure that everyone has an equal amount of filming so that it is fair.
We will make sure that this movie doesn't turn into or get confused with a horror by not show any of the murder, only the consequences. Also, we are going to show the psychological side of the main characters because it allows the audience to relate to their lives in situations that could be familiar rather than constant gory action that you would expect in a horror film.
We will introduce the main characters, show who the antagonists and protagonist are. We will also have credits and varietyof still shots. Our indent will be shown at the beginning of the clip accompanied by music created on Garageband.
To get a good understanding of how to make our thriller sequence, we were told to look at and evaluate previous students 2 minute clips. We were given a marking critera that our thriller piece has to live up to. We have to evaluate what effect there 2 minute clip had on the audience. I looked at a piece by group Q1-11 called 'Blackout'. in my opinion by looking at the mark scheme, this piece wouldnt have recieved high mark because it did have much effect on me as the audience. There was no music played or any sound at all going on while the 2 minute clip was playing. This might have been because the group had posted it wrong, or it was actually ment to be like that. If it was intentional that they was no sound, it wasnt every effective or good because i had no effect on me and i didnt understand what was going on in the clip becasue there was no sound. Close to the beginning there is a panning shot, this shows us where the clip is taking place and it familiarises us with the location. This is in most films no matter what the genre is, it is used to show the location. There are many close up shots of peoples faces used in this 2 minute clip. They would be used so the viewer can see the emotion of the character and feel for them when they are watching it. The were mind-shots that showed the location (the room) that the clip takes place in, this has been done to show what the beginning location is at and where the 'action' takes place.
Narrative ideas - Two young girls who are sick in the head who have an obsession with seducing and murdering teenage boys of the same age. The two young girls (who are sisters) will be played by Ellie and Leah and the policeman will be acted by Ben.
Characters\actors ideas - Young policeman who is investigating the case. Two sisters (the murderers). The reason we have chosen these characters is so that we are all part of the 2minute clip and we all get a chance to film and act. The reason we have chosen two young teenage girls is because we thought that the audience could relate to the normal parts of their life.
Locations Chosen and why - The two girls will be filmed in the forest in college, we have chosen to film here because a forest is seen to be a 'spooky' place. Although we will be filming i the day, we want it to seem to the viewer than it will be at night, so we will use the colour contrast on final cut to edit this. The policeman scenes will be filmed in school in a more formal place but still darkish. We have chosen these locations to make the clip seem more eery and spooky, but the locations used for the policeman would be a working environment so it will allow the audience to familiarise themselves with the locations. The locations also help the viewers to recognise the protagonist and the antagonist.
The certificate will probably be a 15 due to the blood and dark themes involved.
Thesub-genre of this film is a crime thriller this is because it will use the crime conventions of: It involves a murder, the characters have ambitious desires for success or recognition (e.g. murdering boys, or solving the crime).
The style of the titles will be handwritten scratch writing with blood running down them to keep with the theme of the film.
The music used will be very recognisable for our indent and then eerie and suspenseful during the rest of the film. A variety of shots will be used as well during the film to keep with themarking criteria.
The only intertextuality we can think of is the policeman part which will be similar to the beginning of "identity".
We are very pleased with our indent for our made up company 'Thriller Live Assocites'. we chose to make it like this because we agreed that we should do something simple but effective like real companies do. We chose to name our company Thriller Live Associates because the movie that it would produce would be thrillers and the rest just roles off the tongue and fits in with the theme. The reason for the big label 'TLA' in the center is so that our label is recognisable to an audience of all ages e.g. Paramount and 20th Century Fox. Finally the indent will be accompanied by a soundtrack that will be played with the indent in every film that is created. This will be done to make it recognisable, e.g. Warner Brothers Productions. We used these colours for our ident because the white writing stands out against the navy blue, which we chose rather than having just a plain background because it looks less tacky and more expensive which gives off the impression that our company is very professional and important. We will be happy to use this as our film production company for are 2:00 minute sequence.
The ident we used is of virtual studios in the beginning of blood diamond. The reason for this is that it is not well known, but yet it is still effective and memberable. The soundtrack accompanying the indent is of the film soundtrack itself which helps the company associate their ident with the film and as it is a popular film, lots of people will watch it and therefore remember it. The signature big V with a door within it is the logo of virtual studios (as you can see above) which comes up before the text comes in so that the audience can associate the logo with the company. Also it doesn't all come in at once, it comes in sections so that it can have more impact and build up suspense.
In this lesson, we watched a beginning clip of a thriller with no music, we then had to create a soundtrack to go with the clip on Garageband.We found this quite difficult because we had to get the timing right which was difficult to d as there was only one copy of the movie and everyone was trying to use it was the same time.Also, we didn't have enough time to complete our soundtrack, so this made it not as good because the full effect of the clip. When we watched the clip from Identity with the music, our interpretation was quite similar to the original soundtrack. Now that we have used garage band for a thriller film we will have a better idea of what sounds we will need for our own thriller as we have already tested some of them out.
They have managed to meet the marking criteria of: Holding a shot steady Shooting material appropriate to the task set, e.g. the dark settings and more mature objects and themes used such a blood and weapons. Selecting mise-en-scene e.g. dark settings, thriller make up used (blood), dark soundtrack. Using varied shot transitions/effects, e.g. the hand written titles that go in and out of focus so it looks like they're shaking. Using sound with images e.g. the broken sound used every time the titles are used without action. Using titles appropriately e.g. the shaking titles are used either on a complete black background or over not so important action. Framing a shot, excluding or including as appropriate e.g. the close ups of blood, weapons and photographs.
All of these help make this video sucessful at attracting the audience and portraying the thriller genre, if i was to improve this video i would use a larger variety of shots which would help them achieve more of the marking criteria.
Demonstrate excellence in the following to gain a level 4 for video: - holding a shot steady - framing s hot - excluding/including elements as appropriate - using a variety of shit distances - shooting material appropriate to the task set - selecting mis en scene - editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer - using varied shot transitions/effects - using sound with images - using titles appropriately
Other criteria you must include: - be able to see the setting or location - music should indicate the genre - themes of your film and narrative structure should be clear
How do Micro Elements creating meaning in the clip?
The film opens with a close up of the main character which shows the concentration on his face for what he is currently doing. It also shows that they have used a stereotypical good looking young man as the main character. This begins to pan out to show us his surroundings and other characters so that the audience can become familiar with these. It also uses a mixture of close up shots to introduce other characters but still has the other characters in the background rather than just focusing on one person.
The lighting used throughout the entire opening sequence is dark. The room is lit by low lighting and the machinery that they are using. This makes the setting feel more personal and allows the audience to feel slight suspense rather if they had used bright lighting, they would feel happy and safe.
The costumes they use are basic clothes that resembles a uniform. All the characters are wearing similar clothes but in different ways which can show their personality and their character. For example the older man has neat tidy clothes on which shows how superior he is compared to some of the other men that are wearing dirty vests with overalls.
The sound used is mostly dialogue. The characters have American accents but the man that is the one with power, speaks in a more formal tone to the rest of the characters. They use quiet, slow background music throughout the clip which isn't very noticeable until the end when it suddenly stops and a loud noise is made to show something bad has happens and it creates suspense. It also matches what is happening in the clip because we see the shock on the characters faces.
What conventions would you expect to find in a thriller?
Narrative: Thriller films are normally shown from two characters points of view, usually the main characters. They are most commonly shown through the villian or the victim. By having the tory shown through the villans mind, it can create sympathy for them and allows the audince to maybe see a different side to the story. Another way the story can be told is through an onlooker which allows the audience to experience the events which would make them be more observant towards the characters and the storyline.
Characters: The typical characters you would expect to find in a thriller film are a villan and a hero. These two characters would normally be the main chyaracters that are played off against eachother throughout the thriller. You may also have other weak characters around the victim that could also be picked on by the villan to emphasize the power he has over everyone. Another character you would expect to find is the good citizen, the person that is trying to help the victim eg policeman.
Props: Props that could be used for a thriller film are obvious weapons like guns, knives etc as they create the feeling of danger.
Sets: Sets that you would find in a thriller scene are normal every day sets to familiarise the audience with the characterssurroundings eg streets. It also allows the character to identify when they are in an unknown place which shows that something is about to go wrong. These sets could be anywhere, but dark and dirty places are often used when something bad has happens which creates a bit of a horror feel to the film.
Camera Movement and Angles: Lots of close ups used during the fight scene keeps the viewer interested and shows how the pivetable points of the combat can change the final outcome for the main character, the high angle shots used represent how the protagonist is dominating the enemies while when he is in danger he is shown at the same level as the enemy. The protagonist is shown to be in peril more than once during this scene which is a typical convention of a thriller film.
Sound: All diegetic sound available is used from gunshots to voices but this is joined by a non-diegetic upbeat soundtrack over the top, making it more appealing to the audience especially younger viewers. This type of sound is most typical in an action thriller to build up suspense and intensity.
Editing: The editing used is very quick moving between lots of different camera shots, only really using normal cuts and jump cuts making the story easy to follow but still keeping the audience entertained.
Mise-En-Scene: The setting of the mordern house with darkish lighting is typical of a thriller action film so that it can represent the darker mood of the thriller genre, the furniture and and decorative props are typical of the house enviroment while the guns an axes are more typical for the action involved. The costumes are formal dark suits or clothes for all of the enemies with no special make up apllied which is typical for enemies in most action thriller films. While the lead where's slightly more brighter clothes with not really any make-up but still looking better than the others as he is the attractive lead which is typical of all thriller films in general.
Crime conventions : Suspenseful account of failed or successful crimes : Involves murders/robberies/Shoot-Outs/Double crossing. :Can glorify the rise and fall of criminals, sometimes in real life. :Often set in large cities to provide a view of a secret world. :Characters have ambitions desire for success or recognition. :Strong rivalry between binary opposite characters :Several locations often seedy indoor locations.
The crime involved in this film is a murder of the lead character's (Harrison Ford) wife.
The film is mostly set in the city of Chicago, but also in the outer regions aswell such as the forest and water reservoir.
We also see a suspenseful flashback of the successful murder of the wife from the lead characters point of view, making it easier for the audience to empathise with him.
The story glorifies the fall of the lead character after he is framed for the murder of his wife and is on the run from the police after escaping from the jail bus.
The desire of the lead character is for recognition for the death of his wife, and to find the killer and make him the real criminal. This keeps the audience interested and builds up lots of suspense.
The strong rivalry involved is between the framed criminal (Richard Kimble) and the police detective (Samuel Gerad) who is trying to capturing him and place him back in jail, the male vs male rivalry is typical of films like this.
disruption to equilibrium requires the protagonist to use action to solve it (most be still from some form of combat)
usually involves a character of the opposite sex to drive the narrative (however, their loyalty may be doubted, double cross scenario).
often involves high character profiles.
examples are: Spider man, Die Hard, James Bond.
This is the trailer from Spider man which is an example of the sub genre action.
This movie is portrayed as a action film becasue it fit in with the conventions of an action film. The viewer can very easily recognise the protagonist and antagonist. There is alot of fighting and violence in this movie between the 'baddy' and the 'goody'. There is a woman the spider man is fighting for, but not against the antagonist, so this is sort of a convention, but it doesn't completely fit, although the famale character does get into trouble with the baddy, so the protagonist feels that he has to save her no matter what becasue she is his 'love'. The scenes with fighting in mostly have something bad happening to them at the end after a certain amount of time, so the protagonist is racing against time to prevent the bad thing form happeneing. In this movie and other action movies, the only way the crime can been seen to be solved is if the fight and use violence. In most actions movies such as this, the producers what the audience to think that the protagonist is loosing so that they feel sorry for him/her as they have created an emotions connection with them. Obviously in the end though the protagonist defeats the antagonist, but they may come out of it a bit battered and bruised like in 'Spiderman'.
danger on a mental level initially rather than physical.
2 or more characters preying on the minds of each other to create conflict. or one solitary character in mental conflict with their own mind.
characters will try and discover their own purpose.
characters have a fear or fasination with death.
narrative - confusion of what is real and what is not.
non linear edits/flashbacks/montage.
This movie 'The sixth sense' is an example of the sub genre - psychological. The whole movie is based around mental suffering, but with a twist becasue in some ways it can be seen as a good thing. Both amnin characeters are linked in mental suffereing, whether it is them, or poeple who they work with. In this movie there are two characters that are trying to find there purpose and look for an ansswer. By the end of the movie they both find what they are looking for, it might not be the answer they want, but at least it is an answer, so it doent keep them and the audience in suspence. The whole movie is about death, but the audience doesnt know that untill about half way through what the problem is and what the catch is. By the end of the movie the audience gets let in on that one of the main characters is dead. There is definatley alot of confusion to where thing are real or not in this movie and this is a convention of the sub-genre pschological. The movire is all about dead people, but the audience doesnt know it, so they may get confused and disturbered just like the producers want them to. Many flashbacks and montages are used in this film. This gives the viewer back groung infromation of the past. Montages are used to tell alot aout something in a short time.
Political - Conventions :Threat set against a backdrop of power struggle. :Plots are designed to illustrate a possible power shift or give power to someone. :Opposing characters will try and prevent this person from gaining the power. :Two sets of characters - ranked by authority. :Often spans many conventions.
Conventions Shown
The power struggle shown during the film is that between the Sierra Leone government and the suffering rebels, the threat shown is that one of the lead characters has had his son kidnapped due to the power struggle between the rebels and the government over diamonds, this also shows the enigma of the character as he does not want his son to be hurt.
The two different sets of characters are Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) who spends his time fighting in Sierra Leone over the diamonds eventually dieing after conflict, and Simmons (Micheal Sheen) who is a deputy businness man in london who pays Archer to aquire and deliver the diamonds while in no fighting at all.
The government are trying to prevent the rebels from gaining power as they fight over the diamonds, as the diamonds are main money income for Sierra Leone so whoever makes and sells more diamonds gets more money and so will eventually take power.
The plot used at the beginning where the rebels raid the village and kill or injure the civillians to make sure they don't vote in the elections, and also when the rebels attack and try to take over Sierra Leone city shows a possible power shift between the rebels and the government.
The majority of the story takes place in Sierra Leone, but in many different locations from cities to deep jungles, before finally moving to London at the end.
Main characters are shot at the same angle making neither seem more stronger than the other building suspense as to who will suffer. lighting is always dark even during day time (white lighting is very dim), torches are used in the house as it very dark and difficult to see which creates a bright point or blind spot which the viewer cannot see building up more suspense. Titles are white on black background which carries out the dark theme of the movie. The older detective had an older suit while the younger detective had a more younger dress sense which makes it easier for the audience to relate to the characters age and attitude. Editing is reasonably normal during the clip apart from in the titles where there is lots of jump cuts used to build suspense and keep the audience involved. During the titles only close up shots are used which keeps the audience aware for danger and builds up more suspense.
The scene begins with music that is fast and jumpy but with a blank screen so it confuses the audience and adds suspense. The fast pace also makes it sound like a chasing scene which we soon find out that it is. The darker scenery shown by the rooftop buildings creates a darker mood emphasizing the thriller genre. The characters are conventional of thriller characters, Victim although changes as at first we think it is the man being chased however it changes to the policeman once he falls off of the building making the man being chased a false hero.you could tell it was an old film because of the quality of film and the music.
The genre thriller is defind as -Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heros who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villans. (wikipedia) The thriller film i have chosen to anaylse is 'The Dark Knight' directed by Christopher Nolan. The reason for this is becasue i have seen it may times and on IMDb (the Internet Movie Database) it is rated as the 4th best thriller of all time.
The lighting in this movie is quite dark, this makes it quite creepy and the suspence on the audience quite high. Everyone is more wearing in the dark becasue they are not as aware of things as you are in the light so this adds to the tenction of the thriller becasue the visibilty level isnt as high as a normal day. The only place in the moive that is brightly lit is batmans place. This makes the view feel more comfortable and at easy when watching this part of the movie becasue it gives the sence of safety.There are many props used in this film to make it interresting for mainly the male viewers. It would make the view want what bartman has such as his 'cool' cars and is strength. You could class the buildings as probs as well as locations becasue without them this movie wouldn't be the same. This is becasue many of the building this film was shot in have been made to look confusing with alot of corridoors and mirrors that would confuse and makes the viewer concentrate hard on where the 'baddy' and the 'goody' are situayted in the rooms.
The colours in this movie are much like the setting, very dark around the antagonistic, but light around the protagonistic. The exception is that although it is light and colourful most of the time around batman he wears a black 'scary' suit, which is the same suit he wears all the time, so it doesnt change.
The make-up used in this movie is very clever. The 'joker' (Heath Ledger) has make-on through-out the whole movie. The scares on his face have been put on his face, and do look very realistic. This would have been done by top of the art make-up artists to create the effect. Also, he has clown make-up on his face for all scenes bar one.The face paint has been made to look like it is old and slightly worn off for effect. The rest of the the casts make-up is just normal; meaning the boys look like there not weareing any and the girls, minimal.
This is our final video and all round we are pleased with it. In some parts we could have made the transitions smoother if we had captured more footage. As we are not drama students our acting isn't great but we think that we gave a convincing performance.
08/01/2010 Today we edited all of our footage and put it together to make our final sequence. We managed to complete it quite quickly as we shared the work. We had to evaluate our work as well to make sure that we had included all of the correct shots and to see if there was any ways we could improve it. We then uploaded it onto the blog.
7/01/2010 In this lesson we captured all of our footage. Ellie and Leah did all the acting and the filimig was shared between the group but Ben did a majority of the filming as he did the least in the last preliminary task we did. overall we did quite well as we managed to capture everything we needed and upload it all to the computer ready to edit it in the next lesson.
Filming a Conversation Shot. We chose this because it is a typical shot of a filming a conversation shot. You can see the facial expression of the character in charge very clearly and you can see the tenceness in the other characters shoulders.
This long shot is from Finding Nemo. We chose this because you can see the focus of the shot which is the sting ray, but yet you can see the location of where the the movie is set.
This reaction shot is taken from Pixar's new movie 'Up'. We chose it becasue there are two characters in this shot so you can see the reaction from two people. Clearly, from this shot you can see that the facial expression on both of the characters is suprised/confused, but they both show it in different ways. This shot would encourage the audience to feel what the characters are feeling.
This match on action shot is taken from the film 'A Knights Tale'. We chose it because it is a perfect example and you can also see the facial expressions of both the main characters. Normally in match on action shots you can only see one of the characters expressions, but because of the translucent vale that covers where the male actor is sitting.
This close-up shot is also from 'jarhead'. We chose it because it is a close-up of the actors face so you can see his facial expression clearly so the viewer can start to feel slightly what he is feeling and the view can fee for him.
We choose this shot from the beginning scene of 'Jarhead' because it is a perfect example of an establishing shot, as it introduces the characters and the location clearly. The person who has the power and respect is easily recognisable as the man in the middle as he has a different posture and he has the attention from the others.
