Continuity Exercise

We planned a continuity exercise to to understand how shots can give significant information 

We made a simple storyboard to film.

This is my finished video I missed out the shot of the man waiting in the lift.

Jib shot practice

For our thriller opening we decided to use a jib shot of a person sleeping so we would see them from above and it would slowly zoom in and round to their face. This is my test shot, the real shot will be of a man on a bed, we are hoping to use the Boarding House for some indoor scenes.

Thriller opening ideas from group discussion

We had a meeting to discuss what our final thriller opening would be, here are the notes I took during the meeting.

Research- what is a thriller

Definitions of a thriller


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)
Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. "Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest stories in the Western world and is regarded as an early prototype of the thriller." [2] A thriller is villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome.[2] The genre is a fascinatingly flexible form that can undermine audience complacency through a dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familial and political tensions and encourages.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-thriller.htm

Several characteristics help to define a thriller. Thrillers typically involve sudden plot twists and lots of red herrings, for example, keeping people unsure about what is going to happen. This suspense can get almost unbearable, especially in a long piece or a television series. Thrillers also have a lot of action, which is often chaotic, and they typically feature resourceful heroes and exotic settings.



Top 20 thrillers of the moment according to imdb



1. 9.2 The Godfather (1972) 380,781
2. 9.0 The Godfather: Part II (1974) 224,306
3. 8.9 Pulp Fiction (1994) 382,999
4. 8.8 The Dark Knight (2008) 419,010
5. 8.7 Rear Window (1954) 109,663
6. 8.7 Fight Club (1999) 348,705
7. 8.7 Psycho (1960) 132,089
8. 8.7 The Usual Suspects (1995) 248,479
9. 8.7 The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 225,833
10. 8.6 The Matrix (1999) 352,229
11. 8.6 North by Northwest (1959) 86,420
12. 8.6 Memento (2000) 248,778
13. 8.6 Se7en (1995) 254,291
14. 8.6 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) 146,538
15. 8.6 Léon (1994) 181,394
16. 8.6 Taxi Driver (1976) 142,271
17. 8.6 Vertigo (1958) 84,581
18. 8.5 Double Indemnity (1944) 33,967
19. 8.5 M (1931) 36,501
20. 8.5 El secreto de sus ojos

Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock

• extreme close up doesnt give identity
• shot makes a big deal of lips
• noise shudders when name comes up so it conetate with personality 
• pans up to black eyes 
• another name comes up eyes move side to side like shes nervours
• zoom in on eye red light eye widens looks immtadting evil
• votexs in her eyes shes hynotised or hymotiing 
• 
  

Marnie by Alfred Hitchcock

Film titles

• in style of a book with pages turning
• sans seris winged letters old fashiond connotion
• soundtrack orchestra dramatic romantic

firts scene

• bag stands out big and yellow
• a train station
• an enigma has been set what's in the bag and wheres it going?
• old fashion clothes
• sound of heels
• dressed dark cold posture

Next scene

• man says robbed imedtate connection to woman in our minds
• dressed in suit looks professional either a big robbery or he knows what hes saying
• men taking notes probally police
• a woman in her own section made by the doorframe shes not involved
  
  

final idea for our thriller opening

Our final idea was different to our individual ideas below is a list of characters, props and locations that will be in our thriller opening.

Characters

man

family- wife, 3 children

Props

bed

alarm clock

bedside table

car

Gameboy

phone

Locations

house-kitchen, stairs, bedroom, hallway

woodland

road

Brief outline of the opening

A man wakes up and receives a phonecall and leaves the house, his wife and children are out in the car. the next thing we see is the empty car in the woods, the family is nowhere to be seen. the final shot is of the 'game over' message on a Gameboy.

Generic Idenitifiers

We discussed as a group the possible generic identifiers for our thriller opening.

Below is the list we made:

Props

bug/tracking device

suitcase/briefcase

bunsen burner

lab coats

computer

medicine bottles/poison

alcohol bottles

scientific equipment

laptops

pill boxes

plant pots

spades/shovels

passports

phones

torches

Locations

fields

school

town

homes

church

Wem

train platform

shops

car parks

kitchen

media studio

classroom

staircases

corridors

labs

dining hall

Stanier hall

drama studio

bridges

stables

Lighting

dark

red lighting

green lighting

Graphics

Music

sting orchestra

drums

heavy beats

distorted sounds

Camera movements/shot styles

swirling

close ups 

low angle shots

over the shoulder shots

long shots

pan shots

jibs

 

Storyboarding - Learning about different shot types

Learning the basics - Using the camera and shot types

long shot

extreme close up

mid shot

high angle shot

Establishing shot

Meeting 2 - Opening ideas, 6th November 2009

Meeting 2: Opening ideas Friday 6^th November

Present: Anna Jason Jade Jody Andrew

Agenda:  Discuss thriller opening ideas

Jason

Set in a lab 1^st shot a scientist pouring chemicals then some information on a laptop next to some documents we see a shoulder view of a suspicious onlooker he creeps from behind and grabs her holing an implement to her we don’t see what the implement is he is wearing dark clothe she struggles with him he then puts the laptop in a briefcase he pours petrol all over the lab he strikes a match and escapes in a black car the last shot is his eyes in the car mirror looking back at the arriving police cars.

Jade

A poor family but dad is always away a shot of him waking up and rushing out and a shot of everyone else at breakfast a shot of him quickly grabbing his keys red letters piling up saying overdrawn.

Jodie

Sound of a waves diagetic no picture an image gradually fades in of the sea at night time its rough camera comes to the back of a cruise ship camera zooms out showing no lights on scuba divers investigate and get on board there are chairs and tables out of place sun beds upside down and other things wrong but no one there but then a shot of a hand or something

Andrew

Location Dark Island, laboratory at night time

Alarm goes of in lab man takes something from the lab and escapes on a small motorboat with shadows suggesting someone is overlooking.

Some time later another island but in the daytime not dark.  Shots using lighting and music to portray the character and reflect his mindset

Anna

A dark house in a run down industrial area other homes have been done up but this stands out sound of a car door being shut footsteps hand of a woman opens the doot to the house rats are on the floor her breathing gets heavier bits of cut out newspaper on the wall, letters and threats she leaves.

Meeting 1 - Friday 23 october 2009

Meeting 1 – Friday 23 October 2009

Present: Anna, Jess, Jason, Andrew, Jade and Jodie

Agenda

1 Basic brief - a thriller aimed at anyone aged 15 and over.

We had to think for a low budget film and the continuity of the film. We agreed on having backup plans in case something went wrong e.g. absent person, bad weather etc. We agreed the opening would be less than five minutes.

2 Work areas - computer suites, studios, editing suites, town hall.

3 We probably have most of the school to use as a location classrooms, halls, laboratories, kitchen and the drama studio Outside of school we thought we could use shops bridges, train platforms, car parks and churches, and other places in the surrounding area.

4 Things to consider- camera operator’s artists/graphics, lighting, sound technicians, Composer’s and actors/actresses. In the future we need to decide who would be best suited to each role because we will have to take these roles.

5 Resources/props we had ideas for suitcases, scientific equipment, phones, laptops, torches, lab coats, pill boxes, computers, plant pots, medicine, poison, spades, passports and alcohol bottles. The list could be endless but these are just some of the ideas we shared in our meeting. The resources are limited as we don’t have a budget to make any purchases so any resources used will need to be sourced from what we have available at collage or from homes.

Minutes

In our meeting we decided to write out own ideas and openings for a thriller and share our ideas in the next meeting. When writing our thriller openings we had to consider the target audience is to be 15 and over. The audience would be those who can understand the ideas and who like to think about the mysteries and enigmas that are expected from a thriller. We also need consider what kind of thriller (comedy, action, psychological etc.) it will be, this will effect the target audience.

Recce photographs

We went to the Old Rectory in Wem to take recce photos. We got permission from the manger before going out to take photographs. The Old Rectory is a good place to film as it is close to the college, it also has woodland and open spaces which we will need for our thriller opening. Below are my recce photos.

This photo is well framed with a small hole, the small hole draws the eye into the woods.

Through the hole we may get a glimpse of something or zoom in to see a clearing.

This is an establishing shot.

in this photo the paln is to see a unknown fiqure running through the woods, you dont see his face. This shot will introduce us to a character probally the chaser or kidnapper.

this shot looks like a runway, it could show a perosn either running away or towards the camera, showing depth.

This could be the scene of someone tripping.

This shot could possibly be used to show a piece of material snagged on a branch,

however i diden't like this shot much so probably wont use it.

This shot could be were the chase scene finishes and they fade off into the distance. The shot could be framed buy the v-shape created by the branches.
This shot could either be used for a break i the chase scene or for where the car could be abandoned. 
In this shot the bushes could be made to rustle to suggest that someone is hiding. Because there are thick bushes it would hide a person well so you wouldn't see them but instead create the idea that someone was there. 
i liked the shot for seeing material snagged on a branch, i preferred this shot to the other one i thought about for a similar scene.

I think this would be an ideal location for the car to be abandoned as its close to the road and the car park, making access really easy.

My Presentation on a Thriller opening

Notorious

by Alfred Hitchcock

Begins with title scene background of a city New York city? Notorious written bigger and bolder than the other text. The music is romantic but then changes when the first scene is shown to give a different mood, we see a camera on mid close up this sets an enigma already, news event, police, murder? Then the camera pans round to show a lot of well dressed men with cameras so I presumed it was for news the camera continues to pan until we see the word court so we have lots of cameras and a court room it must be something important. There is a man peeking in which builds the eagerness of the audience to see what’s going on inside the room then we see a typical court room scene but it is framed by the sides of the doors because it is the basis on which the film is made. The dialogue gives more enigma apparently something’s going to happen to the country so within the first 2 minutes you are gripped.