Research for our thriller

The article below talks about a man who was an M16 agent being killed in his London flat. This is where we got inspiration for making the man who gets killed in our thriller a target, as if they had been planning to kill him for a while. We wanted the audience to see that the whole thing was a plan and the woman is a sort of 'femme fatale' who goes around killing important or targeted men.

"On the one hand, of course you need to respect national security and on the other hand, of course you need to do a penetrating and thorough investigation.''

We wanted the woman to be portaryed as this because it makes it more scary knowing that the woman is involved in a more powerful force with a group of people, thereore we thought this would make our thriller scarier. We also used real life examples to make it more realistic for the audience.




















You can read the full BBC article here
and the Telegraph article is here

Timeline

Sound in thriller

We decided not to include any dialogue in our thriller, as we wanted suspense to be created and tension to build up.
When the man and woman are in the car together, we wanted a song to be playing on the radio in the car. We realised that we needed to have original music, we couldn't use songs which we didn't have copyright for, so fortunately our teacher gave us permission to use one of his bands songs, as he has permission because he wrote it. We decided to use the song, The beautiful loser by the Dakota Stars. We wanted to have this song playing on the radio in the car, and then we wanted a sound bridge so this digetic sound turned into non digetic music as the woman left the car and the tension started building.

Shooting Schedule

9.30- Arrive at location.
10.30- Ready to shot, everything set up. Actors in costume and make up.
11.00- Shot scene in car with man and woman.
11.45- Shot various shots of mysterious man entering car park and, opening briefcase to reveal gun, close up shots of mysterious man.
12.45-3 Lunch break and no shooting as we wish to film other shots in darkness.
3- Film woman getting into other car and driving away
4- Film the man getting killed and the mysterious man shooting him (we decided to do this last as the blood would go over the car and costumes)
5- Leave set

Location

The location of our thriller is going to be in a multi-story car park, therefore we are going to film in a car park in a town local to us, in guildford. To use the gun in the car park and hire a section of the car park out so it is empty and therefore looks deserted, we have to get our teacher to ask permission of the county council.
We would prefer to be inside the car park rather then on an outdoors floor, as it would make it look more mysterious.
We also needed to use a stairwell in the car park to film the mysterious man entering and the woman leaving.
Locations which are isolated and desterted makes the thriller seem more scary due to the smallness of the character such as the man who gets killed being emphasised.
We also think that the empytness of the car park make create a nice echoing sound which would add tension to the thriller.

Shot by Shot list 2

Due to the changes that we made in our thriller, we needed to revise our shot by shot list. This is our new shot by shot list:

•       Shot by shot list.

•        Two shot of the couple in the car preparing to leave

•        Close up of woman checking her watch

•        Panning shot of woman getting out the car

•        Cut back to man sitting in the car alone

•        Close up of mystery  man holding brief case and close up on watch on his wrist.

•        Over the shoulder shot of woman checking her phone (shows she lies about not having her phone).

•        Dutch angle of man moving up stairs

•        High angle shot over man in car (venerable).

•        Wide/establishing shot of mysterious man entering top floor of car park

•        Panning shot of woman walking out of the car park.

•        Panning shot of the man entering top floor of car park.

•        Various close ups of mysterious man undoing the brief case and pulling out a gun.

•        Over the shoulder shot of gun pointing at the man in the car.

•        Close up of the man’s head falling onto the steering wheel and hitting the horn .

•        Match on action/Medium close up shot of woman getting into a car at the bottom of the car park as the sound of the horn echos.

•        Two shot showing the man in the car passing her a letter.

•        Medium wide shot of the car driving away.

Prop List

 

The props which we need for our thriller are;
A gun - which we are going to get to get from the drama department at our school.

A iPhone - one memeber of our group is going to let their iphone be used for this.

Two cars - we will use the car of the media teacher who is coming to the shooting with us at the car
park, and the car of the male teacher who is acting the victim.

A black briefcase - which we will also get from our drama department at the school.

A watch (for the killer) - we will borrow one of the male teachers or actors actual watch

Cast List 2

We decided to change the actors in our thriller as we decided that we didn't feel that they looked old enough. We chose a drama teacher at our school for the woman who sets up the man who is being killed. We chose this woman because she looked in her late twenties/early thirties, and we thought this was more appropriate so it doesn't look like two teenagers in the car. We also changed the actor for the man getting shot to another teacher at our school. We changed this actor because we felt the new one looked older but at the same time quite innocent, therefore it will create more sympathy for him when he gets killed, and therefore set the tone of the woman being a 'femme fatal' by killing this man who appears innocent. We also felt that they looked good together and would appear as a believable couple as they look similar ages. We also felt that they nmay appeal to an older target audience. We would still have them wearing the same outfits and with the same make up seen in my previous post.

Cast List

We chose this girl for the woman killer as she looks innocent and beautiful. She also looks like a typical English 'rose' and this was the look we wanted to create the illusion at the beginning of the thriller that she was innocent.

We want the woman to be wearing black jeans, a cream sheer blouse and a grey blazer.

We wold also like the woman to have similar make up to the woman in this picture

For the man in the car with the girl who gets killed, we chose someone who also looks quite innocent in order to not make it obvious that he has commited a crime.

 

We want him wearing black jeans, and a pale blue shirt, with black shoes.

 



The Skin I live in analysis

I watched the trailer for the film 'The Skin I Live In', without the sound in order to analyse it. The first thing you see is a man holding up a gun, this shows that the film has violence in it, signifying that it is a thriller. We also see how there is a scene with a man looking scared, with a very dark mise en scene, implying that the film could be found scary and the man is tied up, implying that the film includes torture or an element of being trapped in it. We also see the woman with a mask over her face wearing all black, this colour symbolises danger and death. We also see this woman holding a knife which shows more elements of death and danger are involved.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo analysis

I watched the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, without the sound on, in order to analyse them. At the beginning of the opening sequence we see a dark figure walking down a darkened alleyway, showing how the film is a thriller. There are indications that the film is a thriller through the stalking, death and violence shown in the trailer, implying that there is a lot of this in the film, categorising it in the horror and thriller genres. We also see a lot of dark colours in the clothing of the actors and a very dark mise en scene, this signifies how the film is dark and mysterious, and also the colour black signifies danger and death. We also see how the action is very fast paced signifying that it is a thriller and that there is a lot of action and mystery involved in the film.

Filming Test shots

Today we did a practise filming of our thriller, however we had some slight limitations as we only had one car and weren't in a deserted car park. We used our teachers car and three of us acted in the piece while one of us filmed, therefore the person who played the killer had to double up as the other person in the second car. We realised that creating tension and suspense would be key when creating our thriller. One of the things we will have to overcome is how to kill the man without getting blood on the car. We would also want to include a much wider variety of shots, for example a low angle shot looking up on the killer, giving them a sense of power.
This is our test filming of our thriller.
 

Changes in thriller

We pitched our thriller idea again to Matt, and we decided that we wanted to alter the thriller plot slightly in order to give it more of an enigma. We decided that instead of the woman being in the car when the man is killed, she leaves the car and tells him she needs to go and get her phone. We then see cross cutting of the woman walking out of the car park and sending a text, and the man with the briefcase entering the car park as she leaves. We see them meet at the door and the woman smiles at the man with the briefcase, this still creates the illusion that the woman is innocent. We then hear the man in the car being shot, and the mans head hit the steering wheel and the car horn creates a loud and shocking sound. We then have a match on action shot of the woman getting out of the car park, with the sound of the car horn still in the background, and then she gets into another car which is already waiting on the ground floor, and is handed an envelope. This signifies how killing this man was just another one of her missions and how she is an agent of some sort.
 

Coraline Title Sequence

I looked at the Title sequence or Coraline on Art of the Title Coraline (2009) — Art of the Title and wrote down the times that names of actors, directors etc that appeared on the screen, and what the roles of these people were.

In the Coraline opening sequnce I enjoyed how there was something interesting going on in the background behind the credits, which established a bit of the story line for the audience, without giving too much away.

 

I also looked at the font used in the title sequence, and found one similar on the internet called the Da Vinchi Forward font:

 

Da Vinchi Forward font:

 

 This font suggests that the film is slightly spooky and eerie, and is similar to the font that we were looking to include in our thriller, as we wanted something that looked realistic to someone's handwriting, as if someone in the film was writing it themselves. For example we were looking at having a font similar to this:

For the opening credits, therefore looking at the Coraline title sequence was very useful into seeing how this kind of font can be incorperated into a thriller.

 

21 Jump Street Title sequence

 I watched the opening sequence of 21 Jump Street on Art of the Title 21 Jump Street (2012) — Art of the Title and wrote down what text appears on the screen at what time of the opening sequence, and the role of the persons name that has appeared.

In the opening sequence there is a lot of pictures and short action clips shown, whichdosent tell anything about the plot of the film but shows some of the events and objects that the audience are still unsure as to whether they will appear in the film. I enjoyed how the images were so bright and vivid, and how it was very quickly cut as to not disclose too much infomation.

I also looked at the text of the opening title sequence, which was similar to a 'sports world' text which i found on the internet.

This suggests that the film is a action type of film, and the writing is bold and therfore refelcts the fact that the film is not a horror or thriller film, that it is more light hearted and humorous. The red and white writing reflects the fact that it is an American film the red could symbolyise bloodshed and violence, however the white reinstates the fact that it is not purposefull and is done innocently.

 

 

Developed plot of narrative action for thriller

Our idea has developed a lot since we last gave our presentation.

Our idea now opens with a couple parking up in a car in a car park. We then see fast/short cuts of a person dressed in black. The cuts reveal parts of his identity but do not reveal all, i.e., half of his face in shadows or his feet walking. It shows that he is in a deserted building walking up flights of stairs. It will then cut between the two different scenes to establish the contrast between the two atmospheres surrounding them. The couple are happy with jolly music playing on the radio although the woman seems to be on edge but still enjoying each other’s company whereas the man in black will be eerie and will come across as a villain type character.

The car park resembles where we saw the man in black walking around. We see the man send a text saying 'all set?’ It then cuts to the lady in the car who checks her phone but we do not see what it says. The man in black opens a case he was carrying and pulls out a gun. It then cuts to the couple getting a lot closer. We see an over the shoulder shot of the man's gun pointing at the couple in the car. As the couple are about to kiss, we see the woman send a text saying 'set'. As she looks into his eyes we see her shed a tear and then the man she is with gets shot in the back of the head by the man in black.

 

Shot by shot list.

• Two shot.

• Mid shot from behind

• Close up of man holding brief case

• S ide shot of woman in the car (shows anxiety).

• Dutch angle of man moving up stairs

• High angle shot over man in car (venerable).

• Wide/establishing shot of mysterious man entering top floor of car park

• Close up of woman getting her phone from bag.

• Over the shoulder shot of mysterious man typing a text saying 'all set?'

• Medium shot of her checking phone.

•  Various close ups of mysterious man undoing the brief case and pulling out a gun.

• Two shot of couple getting closer

• Close up of woman sending a text saying 'set' as she leans in to kiss the man

• Over the shoulder shot of gun pointing at the couple in the car.

• Close up of the couple face to face to show that there is a tear falling from the woman’s eye.

• A mid shot from behind the lady shows the couple in focus and the surroundings unfocused.  Couple become unfocused as the surrounding become focused and sharp which reveals the  mysterious man standing in the background pointing his gun.

· Two shot from behind to show man is dead with his head flopped on her shoulder and she is splattered with blood

·  Close up two shot of her moving his head away and saying ‘I’m sorry’

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper is a designer of title sequences for movies, he studied graphic design at Yale University. Cooper worked as a creative director at advertising agencies in New York and LA, where he created the title sequence for the 1995 crime thriller film, ‘Se7en’, which was extremely successful. Copper said that when he created the title sequence for  Se7en, he was aiming to create something different than what was being shown in music videos and commercials at the time, he wanted to raise the bar and make something more creative.  Cooper co-founded Imaginary Forces in 1996, a creative agency, however he left Imaginary Forces as he wanted to focus less on the business side and more on the creative work.  In 2003 he then founded the creative agency Prologue,  and worked on the field of film title design.


This is the opening sequence of se7en, a crime thriller where Kyle Cooper designed the opening sequence. This sequence is purposely designed to be quite mysterious however it doesn't want to give away to much, so each mini clip is designed to hint something about the film, such as the cutting out of words and scribbling on the paper. The writing font that is chosen very carefully in order to introduce the fact that the man writes information down and the non-digetic sound of the crackling and scratching is introduced to make the clip seem mysterious and show us that he is not doing something he should be. The editing in the sequence has also been done so that everything is very quick and fast paced, which gives the thriller a sense of suspense as nothing is shown fully so nothing can be deciphered from it. The non-digetic background music is eerie and also contains exaggerated scratching noises. The music foreshadows the fact that this film is going to be quite strange and mysterious.

Target audience interviews for thrillers

We interviewed a boy and a girl asking them a a series of questions;
1.What thrillers fo you like?
2.Why do you watch those thrillers?
3.What is your favourite thriller film?
4.What are you looking for when you watch a film?

We got different responses from the boy and the girl when we asked them these questions. The girl awnsered that she dosen't like thrillers, and would prefer to watch a romantic film because she likes seeing the good looking boys and girls as the main roles. This was interesting as it showed that girls have different views on thriller films and it is a stereotypical ideology that girls like watching romantic films. When we questioned the boy, he awnsered that he likes thrillers because he likes the fights and the action, this is also a typical view which we could expect from a boy. These reponses provided us with some feedback of what boys and girls like seeing in the films and therefore gave us some ideas on how we could make our thriller appeal to both genders.

How our Thriller idea is moving forward

After the feedback which we got from Matt and Simon, we decided to alter our thriller concept. We were still really keen on keeping the two seperate cars with the couple and the mysterious man in each, however we decided to change the time period and setting of the piece. We decided to change the setting to the top floor of a carpark, as this would be empty and would be mysterious, and we decided to change the time period of the thriller to modern day as this would be easier to create. However we decided to put a bit of a twist into the plot, and make the woman an evil character who is secretly on a side with the evil man, however this wouldnt be shown until the very end of the clip. It would be symbolyised that the woman is evil through the fact she is wearing a red dress and red lipstick, but she would have been seen as being a couple with the man she is in the car with, and we would see her giggiling and flirting with the man. We then see a sniper target on the woman, and it looks like the woman is going to be killed, and as she is going in to kiss the man, she gives a slight look towards the gunman (who is the mysterious man in the other car) and then he will pull the trigger, however; it is not the woman who gets shot, it is the man.

Account of Thriller Pitch

We pitched the presentation which we made to our teachers Matt and Simon, explaining to them clearly how we wanted the opening sequence to look. Some of the feedback that we got from them was that the story needed a punch line at the end, as the idea at the moment was that no one would get killed but we would just build suspense throughout. They also said that the concept of a large projection screen and old fashioned cars would be very difficult, and it would be easier to filmed if we could change the setting somehow. Overall they said they liked the idea but it is a hard concept to film, so  we should play to our strengths and take the things that we like out of it, such as the concept of the two different cars and the evil and innocent characters, and move the idea forward somehow. This was quite a positive process as it encouraged us to move forward with the idea and expand on it, changing some things around to make it a more realistic idea for filming and a more attractive film for an audience.

Thriller Idea

Deciding on our thriller idea

We all discussed our individual ideas together and decided which to use. We all agreed on a thriller idea of a thriller set in the 1950's. We decided to use this one as it was someting different and was quite an original concept,  we felt it would be a good experience to film. We all thought that this idea was a strong idea and we could work well together as a group on creating it. We worked on a powepoint which we were going to pitch to our teachers, Matt and Simon. This consisted of the different ideas which we had created for what the actors should wear, the camera, lighting, sound effects and what we should include in the mise en scene.

Thriller sub-genres

There are 5 different sub-genres of thrillers; the conspiracy thrillers, the political thriller, the spy film, the psychological thriller, the techno-thrillers and the supernatural thriller.
A genuine thriller is a film that follows a single-minded goal. It normally includes excitement, suspense, anticipation, expectation, tension, and people being placed in life threatening situations, all building towards a final climax.




The conspiracy thriller (or paranoid thriller)
This type of thriller normally involves journalists or other types of investigators finding out a small piece of information which leads to them uncovering a conspiracy and leads them to find out a lot more then origionaly intended. These are often played out as ''man/woman-in peril'' stories, or narratives which are similar to detective stories. The key themes of conspiracy thrillers are; rumours, deception, lies, and old history being brought back up. Examples of conspiracy thrillers are; The divinci code, the girl with the dragon tattoo, salt and angels and demons.





The political thriller
A political thriller is a thriller which involves a political power struggle, invloving extra-legal plots, where someone if trying to gain power and other people are trying to stop them. The normal themes of political thrillers are; political corruption, terroism and warfare. Political thrillers can be based on true events, and also overlap with the sub-genre of consiracy thriller. Examples of conspiracy thrillers are; The Ghost Writer, State of play, JFK and The edge of darkness.





The spy film
The spy film is a subgenre of both thriller and action. Spy films show the espionage activities of governemt agents and show how high the risk is of them being discovered. The spy film is one of the most popular types of thriller worldwide. The main themes of spy films are; technological thrills, exotic locales, and they combine the action and science fiction genres. Examples of spy films are; The Bourne films, James Bond, and Hanna.





Psychological thriller
A thriller with a big focous on the unstable emotional characters combined with mystery, and sometimes with the drama genre and the horrow genre. The main themes of psychological thrillers are; reality, perception, mind, existence, identiy and death. Examples of psychological thrillers are; Silence of the lambs, seven, black swan, vertigo and psycho.





Techno-thrillers
This is a genre which drwas ideas from both science fiction and thrillers. They include more technical details than most other genres, such as military technology. Techno-thrillers often overlap with the genre of near-future science fiction. The main themes of techno-thrillers are; technology, mechanics, espionage, martial arts and politics. Examples of techno-thrilers are; jurassic park, westworld, the net, die hard 4.0 and I robot.






Supernatural thriller
In supernatural thrillers, out of this world elements such a fantasy are brought in, with added tension, suspense and polt twists. These films build there suspense through the plot twists rather than action. Examples of supernatural thrillers are; The others, The sixth sense, Fallen and What lies beneath.

Editing our Prelims

When editing the prelims I learnt how to edit and match shots, and i learnt how to check the clips in and out so they appeared on the desktop when checked out and could be used in final cut pro so we could edit them. One of the things which i really liked about the editing was being able to chose from a whole different range of shots and also being able to change from shot to shot and the film still making sense. This, however, was one of the things i found most difficult as it was very hard to find the correct place in another clip to place in where you left off, in order for the dialogue and positions of the actors to still make sense. Another thing which i found quite difficult was trying to match up the sound and the video at the same time, and also to make sure that when the sound was switching from one clip to another it flowed on and did not have a gap in it. Another thing which i enjoyed about the editing was how you could cut the clips and only use parts of them, and insert them in anywhere to your film. I found the fact that when filming the prelim we filmed quite a few extra shots very useful as it gave us the diversity to chose from whichever shot we wanted, and enabled us to make the script look more realistic and have more of a story line for example by showing a close up of the girls shocked face at the end and by showing a shot which was filmed from the outside of the set, to give the effect that someone was looking in. If i could do one thing again i would have made the actors say the script with slightly longer gaps in between the sentences in order for us to show the shocked looks on their faces with extreme close ups which would therefore create a tenser atmosphere. I would also have another light in the room to make the whole thing a bit brighter so we could see what was going on more clearly, however i did feel that the darkness had an effect on the film, making it more tense and mysterious. I felt that as a group we worked very well together, as we each gave our input into which clips should be placed where and managed to agree and therefore put all our ideas together in order to edit the prelim to the best of our ability's.

Thriller posters analysis (target audience)

This is a poster of a thriller which i analysed. One of the first things you see when you look at this poster is the girls face, who is looking straightr on at the camera with a determined look on her face, and she is wearing red liupstick which signifies danger. We also see how the girls face is well lit, in comparison to the sillouette of a man which we can see smaller on the poster, this is trying to show us that the woman is good and the man is evil. Another thing which stands out on the poster is the titel, GONE. This gives us a hint at the plot of the movie, that something or someone goes missing. The colour skheme used in the poster is mainly red, white, and black. The red is used to signify danger and death, the black also signifies danger but also has an aspect of mystery, and the white is used to symbolyise innocence. Another thing which is seen on the poster is the sillouette of another girl, cut carfelly at the girls nose so that we wont see her face. This girl looks different to the other girl so we suspect that it is another person, and we also see how he figure is mainly in black which shows that she is either dangerous or in danger. From this poster we can tell that the target audience of this film is for teenagers/young adults, maytbe of similar age to the girl seen in the picture. We can tell this from all the factors which i have mentioned above, which show it may be a jumpy kind of spooky film, not a childerns film.

Another thriller poster which i looked at was Piranha 3D. One of the things which stands out about the poster is the contrast between the top of the poster where the woman is lying on the lilo looking layed back and relaxed, and the piranha's underneath her, who looking terrifying and visciuous. We also see the contrast in the different colours of blue in the bottom and at the top. At the top the blue of the sky is bright and almost cloud free, which along with the girl on the lilo looks like a nice summer holiday. The blue of the sea underneath her is a much darker clour, even slightly black, which signifies that the Piranha's are dangerous and most likley the girl is going to die. The writing of Piranha 3D is written in red, which is a clour which signifies danger and death, and is also the clouor of blood. The lilo is also this colour. The target audience of this film is most likley a teenage audience, which you can see by looking at the girl on the lilo and the words 'sun sex (..and blood). By looking at the piranhas you can tell that this would not appeal to a audience of children and the fact that the girl on the lilo symbolysis that it may also be about a teenage holiday means itr would mst likley not appeal to adults.

My idea for a thriller opening sequence

An idea which i came up with for the opening sequence of a thriller was tho have a whole family in the back of a car, with a driver in the front driving them somewhere. From the beginning i want it to be evident that the wrong man has started driving there car and they are injured and scared, squished into the back of the car. So that the audience is also unaware and kept in the suspense of who the man is, i would have some low angle shots looking up at the man, showing that he has priority but the lighting of the car is so dark that its not possible to see what he looks like. I would then switch to a shot of the family in the boot of the car, which would be a farther and two young daughters, and the father is clutching his stomach with blood on his hands and the daughters faces look petrified. The back of the car would be more lit up that the front, so you could see the faces of the people in the back. This therefore would show a clear contrast between the  good and the bad divide in the car. The dress of the man in the front of the car would be all black, maintaining the mysterious atmosphere, and he would have a phone in his hand and be talking into it in Russian. The children in the back of the car would be wearing school uniform, to resemble that up until now it was just a normal day and also that they are quite young, and the man in the back of the car would be wearing a suit as if he had just returned home from work. The outside of the car would be dark and the only other lightswould be the lights of cars and overhead lights, showing that they are maybe on a busy road or a motor way, and the car would be travelling very fast down this motor way they are in a rush. There would not be a lot of conversation in this opening scene as to not give much away, apart from some screams from the girls, and the father telling them to keep calm. The non-digetic background music would be a fast action song, in order to show the genre of the film which is an action thriller.

Prelim Tasks

In our prelim task, we film a man and a woman having a conversation, with the man trying to convince the woman to do something she didn’t want to do. In this instanced, we used the idea of the man trying to persuade the woman to smoke. One of the things I liked about the prelims was the fact that we were able to use the camera to film something for the first time, which I found very interesting, and also how we were able to use a proper set, and experimenting with the different props to use in order to make the shots look as realistic as possible. One thing which I learnt about the process of making a film was that it takes a very long time to gather all the different types of shots, as I thought it would be a quicker process but the realised that a lot of shots were necessary in order to make the film look as good as possible. One thing which I didn’t like about filming was how we didn’t get a chance for everyone to have a go at different roles (director, filming, managing continuity), as i would have liked to try out every one of these. I thought as a group we worked very well together, and all agreed at the beginning that we wanted to film as many extra shots as possible in order to have as much material as possible to be edited. I worked with another member of the group on filming the shots, and we filmed about half each, and then when we weren't filming we watched the other film so we could try and gain more knowledge/see what we were getting wrong by looking at the other person. If i had the chance to do it again i would have wanted to make the scene a bit longer at the end, to see what the woman did once the man had left the room. I think we could have filmed close ups on her face and the cigarettes in her hands in order to convey her emotions and portray a slightly bit more of the story. Our choice of location was a set of a room in a house, which had a door on window on one side and another big window on the other side. Our props were a cigarette and a lighter. The use of these allowed us to shoot a close up of the exchange of hands of the cigarette and lighter, which is useful to cut to and makes the film more interesting, and also makes it clear to the audience what is being passed between them. The fact that there was a door enabled us to have the man walking through the door, which meant he was filmed entering the room and therefore maybe the fact that he had more screen time implied that he was a more important character. The window opposite the door was also used for us to film through, because we wanted to give the impression that there was someone outside watching their conversation. We shot as many different shots as possible during the time we had, for example, we filmed a whole run through in a wide shot (as wide as we could film outwards while still including all the set). We also shot a high angle shot on the woman, trying to make her look inferior, a close up shot of each character, over the shoulder shots (keeping the 180 degree rule in mind), low angle shot on the man to make him look more important, as well as the shots which were required of us. In the group i filmed some shots, which were, the low wide shot, and the over the shoulder shots, and also the shot through the window.

Thrillier, Analysis

Catherina

The fact that the film is a thriller is shown firstly by the shots that the camera films from outside the car, showing mystery and also that its trying to symbolyise that the man in the car is important and the dark lighting on him also shows mystery. The music playing at this point creates suspense and sounds like the music is a typical thriller. When the camera changes to shots of the girl you see the gun before you see her face, this signifies that she is dangerous - she is also wearing red lipstick and red nail varnish which symbolysies death and danger. There is a shot from the window looking down on him, possibly showing that she is watching him. The room which she is in is quite cold and empty, which could be suggesting the same about her. The camera then films from behind her out the window, showing she is aiming down at something. The slow heartbeat music suggests she is calm and relaxed - possibly used to killing people. The things i liked about film were how the mans face wasn't shown until he was about to be killer, and also how calm the girl was. Something i thought could be different was darker lighting on the girl as it would make her look more mysterious and threatening.

Children of Men, Analysis

We looked at the poster 'Children of Men' and the connatations of it. You can tell straight away that it is a action/thriller, from the red writing which symbolises danger, and cracked glass which represents violence. We also can see that the film as a futureistic setting as it says on the poster it is the year 2027. We also saw the word children writen in white, which symbolyses innocence, and the mans face is lit up, which shows he may be a good charector.
The film is a hybrid which means it is a cross of two different genres.

Hanna

How is sound used to reveal narrative and character information?

What do we hear and what does it mean?


We looked at a clip from Hanna to awnser this question.
There are two different types of sound, digetic and non-digetic. Digetic sound is sound that the actors can hear on the set, and non-digetic sound is sound which is added in after while editing, for example background music.

Examples of digetic sound in the clip of Hanna that we watched are footsteps, talking, doors closing, crying, gunshots, and glass smashing. Some sounds such as the heavy breathing are amplified to create a greater sense of distress and possible danger. Also the digetic sound of  the flashing sirens which go off when they are looking for her signify the panic when they are looking for her. The digetic sound of her scraping on the walls shows her sense on desperation not to get caught. Also another digetic sound which is amplified is the neck breaking, which is done on purpose to show that Hanna is not such an innocent character as we thought before when she was crying, therefore it makes a shift in us seeing her as a little girl.

Non-digetic sound is also present in the clip we saw, the first non digetic sounds which we hear is the sound of the well moving and opening which turns into the beat of music, this music changes from the heartbeat music when she is being chased, to a slower song which creates a calmer mood and signifies that she isn't in as much of a panic to get away. The non-digetic background music also changes when she looks at the papers which tell he something about herself she didn't know before, which shows a character shift and shock. Finally all music, digetic and non-digetic, music stops when she breaks free, signifying escape.

Working a camera

Recently in our lessons with Simon and Matt, we learnt how to use a tripod, how to bubble a tripod, and also how to change how the film will turn out by changing the shutter speed, exposure, focusing, white balance, and zooming.We also learnt about the rule of thirds, this is that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that the main focus of the shot should be places where these lines meet or across the lines.  We also learnt the 180 degree rule, the 180 Degree Rule states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene disorients the audience. When you break the 180 line, a person who was originally facing left in a scene is all of the sudden facing right.
We also learnt how to film a close-up, wide shot and medium close up.

The Conversation, Analysis



Another one of the film posters which we looked at was The Conversation.

One of the first things that you see when you look at this poster is the selective use of colours, red, black and white. Black is usually used to symbolise darkness and evil, red is used to symbolise death and danger, and the white normally suggests towards a more innocent character or plot. Another thing which we see straight away when we look at the poster, is the location of San Fransisco. When looking at the poster, we see an man in the top left hang side, looking down on two people on the right hand side of the page, these two people come across as a couple, as they are close together . They are in the middle of the focous of a camera, and it seems as if the man looking down on them is the one taking the photo. The conversation title also suggests that the man taking pictures is not just watching them but also listening to the. The city and the man are both in black and white, signifying darkness and danger. The fact that camera is taking a picture also suggests that the film is shot from someone else's perspective.

The Shining, Analysis

In class we look at many posters of different films and worked out the connatations by looking at the front cover of them. One of the films which we looked at was The Shining, and we looked at this poster;



We could tell straight away that this was a horror film, firstly by the fact that the man had an axe in his hand which was going through the wall, trying to get the woman. The way the womans mouth was open showed us that she was terrified and shocked, and was a contrast to the derranged look in the eyes of the man, and the crazed smile on his face, suggesting that he has gone insane. The fact he is sweating profusley suggests that maybe he has been chasing her around for a long time and the way he is looking towards her shows he is trying to get her with the axe which he has shoved through the wall.  The woman is trying to get as close into the wall as possible, suggesting that she is scared, and she is holding a knife which would be for protection. The woman is also surrounded by white, which symbolysis innocnece, and the man is syrrounded by dark which is asscoicated with evil. The knife that the woman is holding in her hand would normally be associated with violence, but in contrast to the axe which the man is trying to get through the wall it is obvious that she is holding it as a weapon of defence, and is probably too scared to use it.

About Myself

My name is Camilla Hampson, i previously studied at Cranleigh school and am now studying at Hurtwood House. My favourite movies are mean girls and taken, and my favourite band is bastille. The reason i am studying Media is because i am very interested in finding out how films are made and i had been reccomended it by other students who had studied it at hurtwood, i also recently worked as a runner on a film set for work experience which i found extremely interesting.