Nikkis Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Whilst planning filming and editing our thriller opening we had to keep in mind the typical conventions of a thriller which are suspense, jump cuts, flashes, mystery, pose questions and make the viewer think, they play on voyeurism a lot and tend to be dark or dim lit however this isn't essential, I think we successfully included most of them throughout our opening sequence.
We filmed at dusk/night time to create a dark dim light, this can create suspense or mystery as your view is obscured slightly we also used a lot of flashes especially in the beginning to break up the long walking scene this is a good technique to use as it throws the viewer off and leaves them asking questions. The use of props in the opening helped a lot the use of the shovel suggests Chris has just been digging or buried something although we never actually see him doing this.


After the walking sequence we go through the house as a point of view shot from Chris this plays with the concept of voyeurism the idea of watching or being watched.

If our thriller was to have a sub genre it would be horror as it indicates death or murder we also incorporate religious themes as the plot line is to do with a cult, the bible in the title sequence and the symbol flash help reiterate this point.


Films that have influenced us would include Silence of the Lambs as we have a long walking scene that focuses on one person another would be Se7en we got the idea for the flashes from the title sequence in this as the main title sequence consists of flashes of images that are relevant to the rest of the film, our flashes include flashes of the cult symbol and flashes of Chris climbing out of the ditch and shoveling dirt. The last film that influenced us would be one hour photo as it plays on the idea of an antagonist which is what we have tried to incorporate with Chris being autistic and becoming part of a cult which then ask him to carry out certain tasks.


Does your media product represent particular social groups?

The main social group represented within our opening would be upper middle class, white, English, male teenager. We can tell this by the type of house he lives in its a fairly big modern house with a modern interior however we haven't represented him in a stereotypical way, he's not a typical hero figure because he's autistic he comes across as possibly being quite vulnerable and although he may be part of a cult he's good at heart we also feel it breaks away from the stereotypical male lead who is normally fairly confident masculine and assertive none of which our main character is putting a new perspective on male leads in thrillers.
As for gender representation it is a very stereotypical representation, a male dominant lead in films is very common ours is the same as we haven't introduced any other characters into the film yet.
Chris is a teenage boy of about 16-17 which links in quite well to our target audience as our target audience is older teens.


What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

I think our thriller is very typical of blockbuster films its edited together really well and the story itself is quite unique it also ends on a cliffhanger, we used some slightly more advanced techniques such as the mirror clone shot and the effects used as we are walking through the house.


Our thriller would be to a cinema standard I think people would want to come and pay to see it rather than an internet only release or a straight to television movie as its too articulate. It has great potential and is similar to other blockbuster films. Because of the uniqueness of our film with Chris being autistic and also being the main character there is a possibility for merchandise as he is an iconic unique character. The possibility of there being sequels is quite open as well as there are several sub plot lines towards the end of the film.
The look of our thriller fits in well with the conventions of a thriller it includes ideas of not knowing and not being the person you expect, there is a definite sense of evil or sinister happenings this is shown through it all being very dim lit apart from the burning candles placed carefully around the house. The use of the shovel again suggests evil connotations and the flashes of images also gives a creepy feeling to the hole thriller.


Who Would Be the Audience For Your Media Product?

Our main character is a teenager of about 17 so our production is mainly aimed at older teens as its fairly easy for them to relate to it can also appeal to a slightly older audience to about the age of 30 our age certificate was 15 this is because it links to murder and death so is not appropriate for younger ages .
Similar films to our thriller would include se7en and silence of the lambs this is because we got most of our ideas from these films and they have similar themes and target audiences however they are aimed slightly less at teens rather than middle aged to young adults.


How did you attract/address your audience?

As I stated before our main target audience is middle class teens to middle aged adults this is because the themes and characters within our film are easier for them to relate to being of similar ages and social backgrounds I think the main of our film audience would be teenagers the mirror clone scene would make them quite interested as its quite a cool effect however the flashes and to some extent the mirror clone could cause some terror or fear in younger children and possibly woman as the tend to be more vulnerable but not necessarily.
Our use of camera shots were key we used a lot of mid-shots and a few close ups with the flashes our long shot built up suspense as it was quite lengthy however broken up by the flashes we also used a point of view shot quite heavily throughout our thriller this would also attract our teenage audience as you can see what its like looking through someone else's eyes seeing things that you wouldn't normally be able to.

By using point of view shots we get to put our selves in Chris's position although we don't see anything of much importance we do play particular attention to the bible of the piano which is linked with the cult and has great importance later in the film. This makes the bible stand out and makes the audience ask the question what is the importance of the bible? And how is it linked to the film? this also makes them want to watch on and find out more this conforms quite well with conventions of a thriller as it creates suspense through the prolonged tense moments within the point of view shots.



What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Whilst making an editing our thriller we had to use several technologies, processes and software I wasn't familiar with.
I was quite familiar with how to use a camera and the equipment however one problem I had was uploading the footage I had recorded to final cut express which was all new to me.
During filming we encountered lighting problems because we were filming outside at night we underestimated how quickly it would get dark and had to re-film a few shots this time we used torches and car headlights to help us create a better lighting .
Another problem we had was the lighting had somehow changed slightly whilst filming the mirror clone so one side was darker we tried lighting and darkening both sides however it is still slightly noticeable so we placed one of our titles over the top.
We got to use apple Mac computers which work slightly differently to normal computers however I have used Mac’s before so had no problems. Final Cut Express was new to me but it was very helpful when it came to editing with out it we wouldn't have been able to do several of the effects or at least not to as high of standard as we did, like the day night cycle and the mirror clone effect its a very straight forward programme and makes it easy to apply different effects. Different techniques we used included mirror clone a speed up process which helped us create our day/night cycle music faded in and out and we also played around with the lighting on several shots.


Looking back to your preliminary task what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Before we could plan what we were going to do we had to do a lot of research we watched many different types of thriller films which helped a lot in learning about different techniques other producers used and how they incorporated conventions of a thriller into their film.
Once we had researched and come up with several ideas we looked again to what makes a thriller a thriller and chose the idea that best fitted the conventions of a thriller. We sketched it out on a storyboard and added more detail like sounds and props camera angles and editing. The initial research helped a lot in our decision making by keeping too similar ideas in other films. We knew typical camera shots and angles they use close ups for tensions and mid shots we however didn’t use close ups as we wanted to create suspense so our character never gets to close to the screen we used mid shots long shots and point of view shots. I think from making this production my understanding of different shots and angles has been broadened I now understand why different shots are used and what effect they have on the viewer and how they perceive the film.
I also feel more confident with using all the technology and equipment as we had to re-record several shots due to lighting and inconsistencies with camera work I now know how to correct these and stop them from happening in the future I can also edit to a high standard using final cut express.
I feel our final product fulfills the task very well and to a high standard we have successfully created a 2 minute sequence with specialist techniques and sounds that include key elements that make a thriller that includes essentials like suspense it leaves the audience wanting to know more and includes main titles actors names and the production company.

Ollies Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our thriller incorporates conventions of mystery in the first scene by not showing the identity of the main character straight away. By doing this we conformed to the conventions of the thriller genre as use of mystery is a fairly typical convention in thriller movies we have studied.
We decided to use a range of image flashes instead of repeating the same ones. which is different to many other thriller movies that have a recurring flash for a desired effect. we felt that having a difference in the flashes would keep the thriller unpredictable which is a key feature of suspense.

this is an example of an image flash from the excorcist, the flash is 30 seconds into the clip.

The image on the right is an image we made in photoshop for a flash.

These are some examples of the different flashes we used in our thriller

The fact that we decided to change and subvert from a typical convention of thriller movies shows how we have developed them. the fact that our thriller contains conventions of horror from the suspense and connotation of murder. Our thriller would clearly come under the sub-genre of thriller/horror. In the context of the whole movie thee are religious aspects featured however as these are part of the plotline and not part of a theme i would contend that thy do not affect the subgenre of the final product. Our use of these conventions indicates that we have drawn inspiration from thrillers such as Se7en and silence of the lambs as these have similar themes of suspense and horror



How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group represented in our movie would be upper-middle class, based on the home of the character; the age represented in mid-late teens from a white background. As it is revealed later in the film; the character also has special needs and so this could also represent a particular social group. The gender of the character is represented in a stereotypical way to some extent as the male character has all of the significant actions and is the focus of much of the thriller opening. So some would argue that he has a dominant role. However there are no female characters to challenge the dominance of role, therefore i would argue that largely he is not depicted with a stereotypical gender representation. Also as he is handicapped, it may make the audience feel sorry for him as it is a vulnerability, especially in our mirror clone scene.

For this reason we have actually subverted from the typical lead male role of a thriller film, such as Brad pitt's character in se7en


This links to the target audience as it offers them a degree of familiarity which they can relate to. This is because white males are typical lead characters in thrillers e.g. Sy in One hour photo. However as previously mentioned we have subverted from this image slightly as the main character in our thriller is not overtly masculine or attempting to assert his dominance frequently [see image above also]. This will offer the target audience a new perspective on the thriller genre.

What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our thriller could be produced by a major hollywood institution because it contains conventions that are typical of many blockbuster movies such as cliffhangers and long establishing sequences at the beginning which allow later plotlines to be introduced one after another and makes it easier to offer a solution to some of them at the end of the feature. Similar movies that do this would be se7en and The Village.




I feel that our media product would be a cinema feature predominantly as it is not implying any metaphors for artistic purposes which tends to be a feature that arthouse theaters look for. Also our thrillers content and target audiece would not be compatible with an arthouse production. Our thriller would also be too articulate for an internet only release and would not suit a tv only release as it contains many similar conventions as existing blockbusters such as Se7en and silence of the lambs. Our thriller movie would be released as it has the potential to become a cult hit like movies such as Shaun of the dead this is because it has an iconic and unique character in the sense that it subverts the genre to have an autistic/handicapped lead role. There are opportunities for a sequal due to unresolved sub-plotlines at the end. Merchandising would be possible due to the iconic & simplistic costume and appearance of the lead character this could be in the form of t-shirts or action figures such as these from the movie: The punisher

From these conclusions it could be said that the visual style of our thriller is dark and mysterious which is a look we were aiming for due to our sub-genre. This is also due to the quick cuts we used in the house which helped to make those particular scenes feel creepy to the viewer. which contributed to the mysterious style overall. Our use of the shovel prop was aimed to further contribute to the sinister themes in the opening. This is because a carries with it connotations of crime i.e. that the character has just buried a body. we see it being shown right at the start which sets the tone for the rest of the opening.


Who would be the audience for your media product?

Because the lead role of our thriller is a teenager we would expect a largely teenage/young adult target audience. As this would allow them to better relate to the movie. We could possibly expect a largely male audience due to the dark themes of murder being expressed in the narrative, which stereotypically appeal to a more male audience. Films like se7en and silence of the lambs are similar to ours. They also appeal to largely the same target audience. However the lead characters in both of these films are adults and so it could be said that teenagers may be less interested in them than our thriller because they wont be able to relate to it as well.

How did you attract/adress your audience?

In our pre-production we outlined that our target audience would be mainly middle class teenagers to young adults. We adressed this by using themes they can relate to, such as sadness and horror. The mirror clone effect would appeal to the target audience as it is a visually interesting effect.

mid-shots and long shots were key to our thriller as they allow a suffiecient amount of ambiguity for the character without ever showing everything that is going on. Pov shots were used to differentiate at key moment and to make sure that the movie did not become too monotonous. During the POV shot the audience are somewhat asked to put themselves in the positiion of the character while he is walking through the house. this has an immersive effect of the viewr and makes the film seem more sinister as they are witnessing eerie things first hand.
The generic convention of the creation of suspense as outline by Alfred Hitchcock are conformed to in our thriller film due to the aforementioned conventions.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

One major weakness of the camera equipment was its lack of ability to function in low-light settings even if our lighting was sufficient. A strength was that it was reliable and did not have any underlying issues for us to worry about. As mentioned above, we faced lighting problems which we resolved by using a cars headlamps to provide sufficient lighting for the camera. We had difficulty aligning split screens for the mirror clone effect, however this was resolved by cropping the image and superimposing a credit over the trim-line.

We used fairly new apple mac computers to edit our thriller which helped greatly as they were reliable and user-friendly. Sites like Photobucket allowed us to upload location shots also. We began learning how to use key frames and using motion key frames to speed up certain parts like the going through the house sequence
This also became useful for our time-lapse technique in which we had to set the speed to a higher percentage

The final effect of this was an effective time-lapse.

We then learned to superimpose text for titles and how to include and fade in music from external sources such as Soundboard which were used toward the end of the clip


Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

For research on the genre we looked at several thriller movies such as Se7en, One hour photo and silence of the lambs to gain an understanding of the conventions used. Whilst storyboarding we carefully planned out what shots to use and when, this is where we gained most of the ideas for our music choices and how to fit it into the different camera movements which led to the whole production running much smoother. From the preliminary task we learned how to successfully incorporate shots such as the POV, mid-shot, and close up which helped us with our filming greatly later. Overall this led to a huge boost in confidence whilst using the equipment

In conclusion i feel that our thriller achieved everything we were aiming for in a successful manner as deadlines were met, conventions were all appropriate and matched the genre expectations we researched. Our blog also shows large evidence of our planning and pre-production meetings. So overall we feel our thriller has fulfilled the task brilliantly.

Chris's evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our thriller incorporates several generic conventions of a thriller such as in our burial scene we have a close up of a shovel pouring dirt into a grave, which a fairly stereotypical thriller sequence, and contains an element of mystery and intrigue, both key aspects of a thriller.

(the lighting is reduced due to the uploader, the final piece is much more visible)


However we also challenge these conventions with our protagonist. Instead of a standard, run of the mill, psychologically impaired and evil murderer, in tend on fulfilling their murderous desires, we have a very influencable teenager who isn't inherently evil, but is brainwashed by the cult.

How does your media product represent partiular social groups?

The main character is depicted as a dominant person, however that is because there isn't another character to challenge him for dominance. The dominance does waver in moments of weakness, such as the mirror scene.

The character's social representation is linked to the target audience as he is familiar to the target age group as he is of the same sort of age, and so the target audience can relate to him.

What kind of media institution might disribute your media product and why?

It could be produced by a major Hollywood institution, because it shares a number of conventions of a typical thriller, such as the cliffhanger/suspense building opening which leaves some unanswered questions, however it differentiates from the normal thriller in subtle ways that make it more unique, such as we know the identity of the killer from the start, and the killer isn't actually evil.

The thriller offers sequel opportunities and merchandising potential, for example, a second film could be made based around the cult recovering from the events of the prequel. In terms of merchandise, it offers potential action figurines in the form of the main character and the cult leader, but I think they could only be sold in specialist shops because the film wouldn't appeal to a huge audience and the majority of the consumers would most likely be collectors, but if distributed on a small scale to specialist shops, then some profit could be made, however it wouldn't be anywhere near as large as a more mainstream movie's merchandise.



The visual style of our thriller is very dark and sinister, and we achieve this through our use of lighting, props, costume and editing. Most of our lighting is dark/barely lit, for example the house POV shot scene is lit with only candles, the living room light and a torch held by the cameraperson, which create a very sinister effect.

In terms of props, the spade in itself is portrayed not only as a tool, but the character also carries it like a weapon, and this makes the spade seem like an instrument of death. Costume also adds to this sinister feel, dark baggy clothing and a hoodie creates a feeling of anonymity as the character could easily blend into a crowd. With the editing, shots like the close up of the character's boot, and flashes with the jump cuts, create a mysterious and suspense building atmosphere.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Our thriller would likely appeal to a teenage audience, as they would be able to relate to it, but due to the dark nature of this film, they would be late teens, and also a more middle age audience would be attracted for the thrill aspect.

How did you attract/address your audience?

By using a main character who is similar to our target audience in terms of age, we made the film relatable to teenagers.

To do this we had several shots designed to appeal to our teenage target audience. The most prominent example of this being the mirror clone, which I've spoken about above, but it is attractive to teenagers, as it has paranormal/supernatural implications, which fascinates young people, for example, Paranormal Activity has been a very popular film amongst teenagers.

A TV trailer for Paranormal Activity :



The generic conventions that our film conforms to is the building of suspense, though the use of music and camera angles, the POV shot is quite fear inducing, and the use of cliff hangers, such as the burial scene, where the audience is left with unanswered questions.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

The camera's did the job, however the quality wasn't fantastic, due to the age and mega pixels of the camera, and also it would refocus if the lighting was adjusted, for example if something reduced the light on the lens, such as someone walking past it, and would create a horrible gritty blur for a moment, however this could be solved by having the focus set to manual. Also the camera's weren't very good at picking up light, and the battery life was very minimal, but these flaws were not too hard to work around.

Lighting was our biggest problem. The camera wasn't picking up light very well, so we had to supplement it with torches and other sources of light, such as a car's headlights, to get the lighting level we wanted, due to the fact that lighting was reduced upon playback and through the viewer. We used new Apple Macs and Final Cut Express to edit and splice our movie, but that's it in terms of relatively new equipment.

I have learnt a lot about Final Cut Express throughout the production of our opening. Implementing text, overlays, effects and superimposing images were fairly simple to get the hang of, and by the end of it I was proficient in using them all. Using keyframes to fade music in and out throughout our opening greatly improved the atmosphere of our film, and the mirror clone shot was great for showing a whole new level of depth for the character by cropping in a second clip on the other half of the screen to achieve the clone trick. Also using a couple of effects enhanced the atmosphere further, such as the blurry flash during the POV sequence where the character looks at the table, and were easy to implement. Also specific features such as the sped up and slowed down POV sequence and the day night cycle were fairly easy to achieve after I learned how to manipulate the speed of the clips, and they worked fantastically to make our film a bit different and more suspenseful.



Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My use of specific shot types has improved greatly. The POV sequence was mostly improvisational, in terms of what I filmed, apart from the path I was to take which was planned out, and took a few takes, however to create realism I just reacted on impulse, looking around my surroundings, lingering on important objects or symbolic surroundings, and subtly shivering at the sight of the cult bible. Also flowing from POV to medium long shot was tricky, however with planning we figured out the best angle to film from as to avoid breaking the flow and atmosphere.

After the production process I feel infinitely more confident with the equipment we used. Editing in Final Cut was new to, but by the time the final edits were made, and the length of the sound clips were synchronised, it had became second nature to me, and I had already had experience filming before, so I built upon that throughout the filming procedure. Using a Mac properly for the first time was tricky too, as I'd had difficulty in the past using one for small tasks, however I became used to it very quickly, and even learned some commands and shortcuts about it as it gradually revealed its secrets.

I am very pleased with our final product. Through a combination of planning, skill and occasionally dumb luck, everything has come together, and it is far better than I'd dared hope. The music we used throughout just seemed to fit to the clips as if they'd been fated to link with specific events, and it was just dumb luck that that the tracks were around the right length and synchronised so well. The filming was stressful due to the lighting, but after a refilming session of the horribly lit sections we managed to wrap up filming, and get down to the editing, and alot of it just seems like coincidence how it all came together so naturally, such as how the mirror clone didn't look out of place even though we'd impulsively decided to include it. So it seems we got out of it what we put in, and I am very happy with the result.

Sub-genre

I just realized we are missing a section about our sub-genre. So I checked out some information on the types of sub-genre such as action thriller or conspiracy thriller. Looking through the list, I think our thriller is most like a religious thriller, with the involvement of the cult, and the defaced bible, as a religious thriller is based heavily around religious groups, objects and ideology.

Final title name

Ollie here

we've decided as a group that the names I suggested sounded too atypical of the thriller genre. Chris suggested one of his own: Acolyte. We liked this as it is not a commonly used word and sounds unique, yet the meaning of the word summarises the plot of our movie i.e. the one who listens to the orders he is given. This will be our final title name of our thriller introduction.

Final

We have finished our thriller opening. In fact we'd finished it last friday but as the bell went when we finished and I had to go home, we left checking it over until today, and everything is fine. We have our mirror clone, sped up and slow motion sequences, jump cuts, and effects, and the music worked out tremendously. Tommorow we are putting it onto disk, as Miss Mapp wasn't in today, so after that we move onto evaluating.

1st lesson Wednesday week two

Ollie here

Today we are continuing with our editing process, we will be focusing on the long "walking through the house" scene. To edit this we will be using key frames to speed up movement sections and then return to normal speed for any pauses in movement that will signal something important happening. We may also use our time this lesson to include some image flashes that will last for only a split second so that it breaks up the flow of sequence on purpose. An example of what i mean is in this video from Youtube. Obviously our image flashes will not be of a creepy face, but this is a good representation of the technique we are looking to use.

The Flash is 30 seconds into the clip.

So far

Ok, we have uploaded all of our footage, and are currently progressing through the editing stages. So far we have:

1. Cut all of the bad shots from the existing footage
2. Arranged our clips into the running order
3. Added some flashes into a walking sequence

so far,
At the current moment, we have spent the past 2 hours trying to fix the mirror clone effect. The first stage went well, however due to a transition in lighting in the second clip which we are superimposing in the mirror. We have tried every avenue, including cropping, opacity, brightness editing, however it seems that we cannot make it work, due to several reasons. Firstly, playing with the opacity of the second clip, due to the superimposition and cropping, the second clip itself becomes opaque (obvious to you, not us) so we can't play with the light like that. We are considering placing a title over the obvious transition, at the bottom right of the screen, however I am skeptical how well that will work, still we're going to try it.

After this we are going to be adjusting the peed of a few clips, which will require some time, and then implementing music.

Expect updates.

Filming update

Ollie here

on a very late note, we (me and chris) got the last of our filming done last night (24th feb) i feel that this went incredibly smoothly with no problems or lighitng issues (like before) to speak of. As it is complete we can focus on editing as stated in my previous post.

Start of editing

Ollie here

Today we began the editing process in our media lesson. So far we are deleting clips we will not use + any bloopers that are lingering on the tape. We are also beginning to arrange the clips into their vague order as according to the storyboard. So far though i think we are using final cut express and other resources to a good standard and i think that the thriller will definatley benefit from this if we can keep it up.

Name ideas

Ollie here

I've just realised that our group hasn't put any thoguht into a name for our thriller introduction yet. This is obviously a group decision so these are only my own ideas

-The Occult
-The Cult
-The Listener
-Influence

These names also work without the "the" prefix.

Fonts & appearances

ollie here :D

As editing is looming on the Horizon (provided our filming gets done) i think now would be a good time to think about fonts for our titles and production credits etc.
Firstly i think it is important that our style of font conforms to the thriller genre because if it subverts from this genre it can make the whole introduction seem confusing to an audience, or it will just not be as effective as it could be. the font should look sinister and possibly be quite bold so that it is eye-catching and engaging to the audience. This would complement the conventions of our thriller introduction whilst also supporting the sinister content.



I really like Droeming and Impact label, i think they really keep the tone of the movie plot and the genre whilst also looking quite good and being very clear and bold. The others were more aesthetic choices as they look eye-catching and/or nice to the audience. however they are not striclty in keeping with the conventions of the thriller genre, so I personally think we should use one of the other two. I'll see how Chris and Nikki feel next lesson. If we cannot agree on one of these fonts then im sure a standard microsoft font will suffice, perhaps Verdana or Arial. as they are clear and readable however not very sinister.

Change of plans

Ollie here

sadly we could not go ahead with filming today due to transport problems. hopefully we will finish filming in the next couple of days to make up for the lost time.
we only need to film one section of scene 1 and some small peripheral shots in order to tie the intro together nicely.

Lesson summary

Ollie and I have been uploading and editing the footage we have so far, some of it needs redo-ing due to terrible lighting. However we have got a few scenes sorted, and we have managed to edit the day/night sequence successfully. We are filming the rest next weekend, as all of us are occupied at inopportune times, so we will finish filming next saturday. Yay half-term

Storyboard timed video

Ok, Chris here, I've just spent half an hour trying to convert the silly file, but i digress.

This is our timed storyboard with music, however the music hasn't been edited, and is just to give you an idea of the sound ideas. For example, we won't have any lyrics during our video, so the music needs mixing. So yes just a basic outline of what to expect in terms of timing.

Filming assessment

Chris, Ollie & Nikki here

On monday night (5/2/10) me, Chris and Nikki began filming. We managed to film most of scene two without any problems, however when we went outside at around 6pm it was getting increasingly dark which later became a problem for us as the camera was not very responsive to the light we used. So we will need to do some re-filming which we are aiming to get done as soon as possible. We are all busy until the last weekend of last term which we are setting as a vague date for re-filming. hopefully we will be able to complete it. Nikki will be bringing lights this time so that will overcome our main problem. We are also going to begin filming slightly earlier to make the most of the twilight.

So far though we have segments of scene one and most of scene two only small sections are needed for us to complete filming

Final storyboard

ollie here

this is our final storyboard. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

Scene one


Scene Two


Please excuse the thumbnails that are rotated, photobucket really doesn't like me.

Ratings analysis

ollie here

This is something that our group has not covered yet so i think it would be a good idea to get it done before filming begins tommorrow

i would estimate that due to the content of the plot of our thriller that it would get a '15' rating. also many other thriler films get this rating so i think it would definatley be the most reasonable.

This is from the BBFC website on classification guidelines. I chose to copy and paste the whole classification for the '15' ratings.
Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory
language or behaviour.
Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not
promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily
accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,
aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic
or sexualised.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and
self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be
copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example,
‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be
acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated
use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without
strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a
non-sexual or educational context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.
There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour,
but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable
unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is
sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is
appropriate for 15 year olds.
Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction
of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to
be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also
unlikely to be acceptable.
There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence
but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and
have a strong contextual justification

Media lesson

Ollie here

in todays media lesson we decided to try and get our final storyboard complete so that it can be uploaded to the blog as soon as possible. if we can get this done then we are free to begin filming.

we are planning to begin the bulk of our filming in Debden green on monday the 8th of February. this will leave us half term to complete any other outlying tasks which are not already complete.

Today

Me, Ollie and Nikki have spent the media lesson performing separate tasks, Ollie and Nikki have been getting our storyboard on paper, as we already know what we're doing, whilst i've been trying to gather skills on Final Cut Express, namely using effects. I now know how to use and add effects into our videos, get some of my own, and Nikki and Ollie have done the second scene of the storyboard. More work coming soon.

Group meeting 1/2/10

Ollie here

Yesterday me chris and nikki went to E3 so that Chris could bring nikki up to speed with some of the editing techiniques on Final Cut Express. This should prove useful as now we all have a fair understanding of the nesesary techniques. this was a short meeting but it seemed worth noting.

Title Sequence synopsis (finally)

ollie here

The opening of the thriller will see the main character climbing out of a ditch in the twilight. He throws up a dirty and bloody shovel before ascending out himself. we then see the character filling the ditch in and casually turning away with his ipod headphones in, he begins to walk toward the camera with the noise of his ipod's music growing ever louder. He continues his walk toward the camera and up the road until his image fills the screen. The camera then cuts to the view of garage doors. the camera begins moving towards them and then proceeding through the house in a POV shot. as the character visits the different rooms, the names of actors and production titles appear on houshould objects such as newspapers. all the while strange images and cult symbols are flashing on screen for split seconds. The character then visits a small room with a bible resting open on a piano, one of the symbols that had previously flashed on screen has been etched onto the paper. the character then proceeds to enter a room and stare at a mirror, when he leaves the room his reflection stays behind in the mirror eerily looking on with a depressed expression. The character leaves to go up the stair, the camera doesn't follow him, instead time speeds up showing the light of dawn and morning creeping in. The character then leaves the house but it is not revealed where he is going and what his intentions are.

Technique idea

ollie here

Whilst in class the other day me and chris were discussing different techniques available to us in final cut express. we used some of our time to learn how to pull off some key techniques on the editing programe such key frames and how to slow down specific times in the scenes. One idea we had was to use a "mirror Clone" technique as outlined in the diagram below

the basic premis of this idea is to take two separate shots of chris walking into the room (my living room) from the angle depicted in the image. the first shot will have him standing infront of the mirror looking sad or upset. the second shot will have him walking into the room and then leaving. we will then split screen the clip but take half of each shot so that it looks like a single shot and no-one will be able to tell that a split-screen in occurring. this will give the effect that chris is leaving his reflection behind when he leaves the room. giving connotations of a deeper meaning behind the shot.

thats all for now, but this is good progress.

Sound plan

We currently have a various selection of eerie music. Our music range is:
The taste of regret by In Fear and Faith
Travis Bickle by Emmure
Kiss and Control by AFI
and a reserve track, Broken Statues by We Came As Romans

We are currently unsure of where to use each piece of music, however we will try out each song in the different scenes, as they would all work, and we want to find out which one would work best. However we are definitely using Travis Bickle at the beginning of scene one, the rest will be trial and error. We have permission from the authors.

Also recording of sound will not be an issue, as we have no dialogue, and the tracks will go over everything, although we may use some diegetic sound during the tile sequence, and possibly some during the ditch scene (unless we choose to use/do something else, we will update the blog).

Costume ideas

I've had several ideas for costumes however as we only have one character in the opening of our thriller movie it has proved difficult to really branch out with different ideas. Because there is an heir of mystery about the main character that chris is portraying i feel that for the first scene in the ditch he should be wearing a black hoodie with the hood up to hide some of his features and some dark trousers. this will emphasize the fact that this scene is very sinister. Also stereotypically in today's society hooded figures are seen as threatening by many people and have connotations of crime and violence just because it hides the wearers identity. The clothes should all be black/dark as this is typically assosciated with evil and sadness which is the mood and tone we are trying to set in this scene.

Just an idea but i thought it needed to be included.

Props List

these are the props we will be using in our thriller opening. I will update this if we have any late additions.

-Shovel
-Bible
-headphones
-ipod
-candles

I feel positive that this is all of the props we have discussed, but feel free to update this if i have missed anything out Chris & Nikki :D

Group meeting 26/1/10

Ollie here.

We have a video Recording of our last group meeting! .The idea was to film one of our group meetings and upload it to the blog. this shows an understanding of the technology and is also something that no other groups (to my knowldege) have done yet. I also decided to film one of our group meetings because it seemed intuitive and would allow us to review how we work as a group in order to improve and become more efficient and productive as a group. this would be an invaluable tool if we were to continue doing it. sadly nikki is not in shot because of the positioning of the camera but im sure the audio quality will allow you to hear her input.

Today

We made some good storyboard progress on the title sequence, Ollie's done a risk assessment, and Nikki is re-drafting the title sequence storyboard. Without anything to do to contribute, i decided to spend the past hour getting to grip with the basic of final cut express, by watching a youtube playlists of tutorials, and i found some very interesting stuff. I've found out how to seed up and slow down a shot/video, which is what we needed for our title sequence, so thats good, and i also found a few other things we could make use of, such as some downloadable effects, for instance a rain effect, which would save the hassle of filming in the rain if we chose to. We have another meeting tomorrow i believe, so expect more to be coming along soon.

Risk Assessment

Ollie Here

As we have all of our locations planned and pretty much finalised i think this would be a good time to write a risk assessment.

Scene One
In scene one we have chris in a ditch to begin with, this could be potentially hazardous in case one of us, or the camera, were to fall in without climbing in carefully, in order to make this as safe as possible we will use a particular area that is not too steep so that when chris is climbing in and out he will be at minimal danger of hurting himself. In order for us to film the worm-eye view shot from inside the ditch i think that only one of us should be operating the camera, i.e so that a minimum of two people are in the ditch at any one time, this will leave one person on hand to help out at all times. Besides the ditch there is not much else that could be a health hazard, obviously we will all be bringing our mobile phones in case we need to call for help. We will be filming alongside a road for about 30 seconds worth of film, however this will not be too risky as we will be keeping an eye on the road as anyone would on a daily basis.

Scene Two
This will probably be the least potentially dangerous of all scenes, only one person is needed at any time throughout the scene as it is all to be done via a POV shot with no characters appearing on-screen. However filming for this scene will not be taking place in one single location, we are planning on doing a very small bit of filming by a lake in Dunmow, but this will take place more than 20ft from any actual water so the risk of one of us falling in is minute. My garage is being used for part of the filming, there is alot of mess in my garage so we need to be careful with the camera and that we do not trip over.

Props, weather, other
Outside of scenes our only potential danger is weather, however this is only really a danger to the camera which we can cover in a coat if need be. If it happens to rain during filming of the ditch scene then we will make sure to be out of it before there is a risk of the slopes becoming too slippery to climb out of. We maybe using floodlights for some scenes however we are not completely sure if we are logistically able to transport them to the locations and if we can even get a power supply to where we will be. If they are used then we just have to be responsible when using them. As far as props go for the scenes, we were thinking of using a candle as lighting for one part of Scene two, obviously fire carries its own risks but if we are responsible i'm sure we will come to no harm. In Scene one we are using a spade as a prop, I dont think there are many risks from using it but as it is being used during the ditch part, we should be careful not to leave it lying around in case one of us trips on it and hurts themselves, or even falls into the ditch as a result of tripping on it.

okay that should just about cover all risks, until next time blog :D.

title sequence update

We had a meeting about the title sequence earlier today and i have redrafted it with the changes there are still a few bits that we need to work out but as far as the title sequence goes

it will begin outside the garage with chris walking through he places the shovel down in the garage which will be dimly lit.
When chris places the spade down we will see a newspaper that will have the first of the names in the title it will say 'Chris Harding and carry on to read something along the lines of starring and co producing the next big thriller' he will then carry on walking through the garage until the utility door at the end which leads into the kitchen all of this will be point of view shot.
Once in the kitchen he will carry on walking through he looks at the fridge which will have the 2nd of the names Ollie Cracknell spelt out in fridge magnets.
after this he will carry on walking through the kitchen and across the hall to the living area which will then show the 3rd name Nicola Mooney although we are unsure where this name will appear.

As we walk through the the door ways we will have flashes of images the first will be of a knife. the second of this bible with the symbol in side on the piano next to a candle maybe, the third of a child by a lake with a balloon a happier childhood memory maybe, the next will be of that same lake with the same balloon but the child will be gone and the balloon will pop ( this will be done by us behind the camera out of shot shooting it with a bb gun or a spud gun so they cant see how it pops) and one of just the symbol maybe if we can fit it in if not the symbol will be in the bible which will hold significant value to the story later.

Chris will then perhaps fall asleep on the couch an the camera will point out the window an we will see the night fade away into day and chris will get up and leave the house via the front door which will reveal our title if the film this will then lead onto Chris's idea of watching him leave the house after.

Wednesday meeting

We are currently undertaking different task at the moment, Nikki is redrafting the title sequence, Ollie is mixing one of our bits of music we intend to use, and i'm getting to grips and look at possible effects and techniques we could make use of with final cut (as i couldn't get the music i wanted to mix as it isn't downloadable from anywhere) same sort of thing next period (5th) but we intend to come together and finish storyboarding then.

Locations

As a group we have decided on some definite locations for our opening sequence
Ollie's house.
The road by Ollie's house.
The lake in Great Dunmow.

we will be using Ollie's House for the title sequence when we track through the house.
The road by Ollie's House we will be using for the first scene when chris climbs out of a ditch as it has a ditch running along one side of it and the lake in Great Dunmow will be used to film a child with a balloon as part of the montage/ the images that flash up in the title sequence.

we will post a risk assessment for each location shortly as well as a risk assessment for the props, weather and everything else that will need to be covered.

Title Sequence Draft

Ive Drawn a story board for the title sequence which needs a few tweaks but so far we have the camera tracking through chris's house (in the movie), it will slowly move from one room to another going in each room to see it in more detail almost like a virtual tour. The camera will be facing down the hall way as if it was someone walking backwards.
As the camera goes through the door ways, random images will flash up like memory flashbacks these images will consist of childhood memories, images of chris, the sacred book with the symbol and such.
They will be quite quick but long enough for you to see what the image is.
As the camera moves from room to room you will also see the producers names either spelt out across the tables and walls or as ollie suggested spelt out in house hold objects such as magnets on the fridge.
For the main title i think it would look really effective if the last bit of the tracking could end up in front of the front door as if looking in with the title being in the room and as we walk backwards the door closes so we can no longer see the title and is just a shot of the front door.
The house will just be a normal house where chris lives with his parents but could hold significant clues for later in the plot hence why we see it in so much detail.
Once ive re-story boarded it i will scan it an upload so we can see it properly.

The movie plot draft

I finished writing this a few minutes ago, it didn't take too long, incorporates our main plot ideas, but I had to be creative with making the rest of the story after Chris finding the strange bible (Note-this is not the final draft, probably, and names, content, ideas etc are subject to change over the next few meetings)

Here is my draft plot summary:
The movie is about an autistic teenager with strong obsessive tendencies, who discovers a strange insignia in an old and strange bible, filled with annotations, and on each page is this strange symbol. Chris becomes obsessed with the symbol and sets out to find out what it means. By studying the book closely and following the clues he wrestles from the anonymous annotator’s scrawlings, he is led to a dingy crypt beneath an old, abandoned church. Here he finds a small cult dedicated to cleansing the world of sin. With his search finally complete Chris is happily drawn into their rituals, led by an obsession about the strange symbol, and becomes obsessed with the cult’s cause as well. Seeing how impressionable and innocent he is, the cult leader manipulates Chris and sends him off to carry out his bidding. Under the impression that he is pleasing God, Chris carries out his master’s wishes without a second thought, burning certain buildings down, trashing a church, and assaulting a priest. Until Chris is sent on more evil missions, and murdering ‘sinners’. These select targets are ones who will go unnoticed, and he makes the killings seem self inflicted, until the cult leader orders his to physically murder the most hateful sinner (in their eyes) and absolve the planet of his presence, thus pleasing God greatly (theoretically). Whilst all the while the police are investigating and an intrepid young detective believes the attacks and killings to be connected, and sets out to track down the young protagonist. Until an attack on his own life is made and Chris is captured. He then coerces Chris (without use of force, Chris is co-operative as he has lost faith in the cause, and wants to make amends to God) into disclosing the location of the cult and their leader. Chris then leads them to the crypt, the cult members are arrested, but then seeing the destruction of his very cause the cult leader stabs Chris, who then seeing his chance to absolve the world of the very evil he believed to be good, takes the knife from his chest and stabs the cult leader in return. The cult leader dies, all willing to live gone from him, whilst Chris lays in the detectives arms and smiles, confident that he has earned his place in heaven.

Any corrections or adaptations shall be posted forthwidth. I state again, this is just a draft.

Out of class meetings

We have decided today that to complete our pre-production piece quickly, and to a good degree, as we have the ideas, but havn't got them set in stone, we are going to be meeting up to complete our preproduction work during our following study periods this week:
Tuesday 4th period
Wednesday 5th period
Thursday 2nd period

This is because most of our work either requires, or we would like to carry out together, so we will complete the work during this time. Expect notes on our progress during these periods.

Also today we assigned each other a task to complete tonight in time for our meeting tommorow. Nikki is completing the title sequence/montage section in whatever way she see's fit, although we all have the main idea the group wants for our task, and if nany amendments to our work need to be made, then we shall make them tommorow when we are together and can evaluate each others work. Ollie is writing out the plot of the opening sequence in detail, we know what we want to include here, but we just need to write a synopsis for the opening sequence in story format to appease the pre-production requirements. I am writing the plot for the film in its entirety, which is less detailed than the opening sequence plot, but requires a broader picture. I have the basic idea for our plot, but the rest has been left up to me to come up with, so I shall run that past them tommorow. I think we have split the workload fairly and that the extra work on top of our individual plans for tonight (homework etc) should'nt effect our evenings by much. Also this should set us well on our way for completing our pre-production segment. More information on this later.

There's been a lapse in my research

before we finish our pre-production I wanted to check over some thriller opening clips (on top of what we've already looked at) as at the moment our group gets confused every now and then between writing for a trailer, and writing an opening sequence. The first example of this I would like to look at is the opening theme for the TV series Survivors, a thriller-esque drama about a deadly flu virus that kills off around 99% or more of the population (the remainder being immune to the virus). The opening is really effective as it uses a theme song that rises in tempo (see the video below) and raises anticipation as it builds up, whilst keeping a sinister, chilling air about it. The imagery is very effective as well, the opening uses a montage of clips of people just, well, living really. Normal busy streets, children on swings, people crossing a high street, a few smaller scale clips of just a few subjects, for example a couple enjoying a day on the beach, whilst a creepy cell effect multiplies and grows to cover the screen until the adtual title comes up on screen after the montage. It is very effective as it strikes at the viewers emotions with different camera angles such a POV shots, aerial shots, tilted shots, and several others to keep it mixed up, but all the time showing the normality that is about to be shattered by this virus. This isn't an opening sequence as such, but it is a title sequence (a main part of our opening sequence, so researching this is useful) as the credits are just slipped into the opening theme, by being subtle yet obvious, in a normal size font, so not tiny or too large and bold, so you can see the main producers, yet the don't break the flow of the story build up. Also using quick cuts between each clip and the credits fit with the music well and really make the show immersive right from the off.

updated cultist symbol

Ollie here :D

This is expected to be the final design for our fictional underlying cult logo that will be recurrent throughout our thriller opening.


it was designed on photoshop by me, I think for the most part this is an origional design, loosely based on the emblem system in the halo video games franchise (the player designed their own from preset symbols) however i also tried to make it look a tiny bit supernatural and alien-like so there are small some small personal influences in my design. I was also aiming for simplicity in the design, which was not present in my previous one. Simplicity is a recurring feature of most cult symbols throughout history and so i tried hard to emulate this. for example the KKK and Nazi Symbols:


Anyway we agreed it looked good so expect to see this in the opening :D

clip idea

I thought it would be really effective if we filmed the walking clip of me from a frontal angle with me walking towards the camera wth two people on either side of me, all of us wearing back hoodies with the hood up to create a mysterious air, then both of the wingmen to fall back as I kept walking forward. I will discuss this with the others shortly, but it would be accompanies by one of our thriller-esque songs in the form of non-diagtic sound.

synopsis's of todays lesson

The aim of today's lesson will be to produce a synopsis of the plot of the movie as a whole, then a more detailed synopsis of the actual opening sequence.

some idea's i've had are, the main character (me) is being accused of murder, but he actually hasn't done anything wrong, and when he found the actual murderers victim, he buried the body due to religious beliefs (for example a soul can't find peace until it rests or something), the other idea the group had was involving a cult, which we may develop next lesson so keep your ear to the ground, and we will finalize the opening sequence plot .

quick ideas

in regard to the lighting most of the first scene were using torches as were setting it at dusk/night i think itd look really effective if we could either get two really good torches or maybe even car headlights and just have them shining down the road so its not directly on chris but gives the illusion of a car hence when you see him walk towards the camera he could be walking towards the car.

i think this could look really effective because it will highlight chris and provide enough light for us to see what hes doing because hes moving but it can also make the scenary look slightly creepier by adding shadows from the trees and surroundings.

Location

hey guy
i was looking at other possible locations to film and by my dads house in Great Dunmow there a lot of feilds, trees and walkways/bridleways and other such plus a little lake so i took some shots so you could see roughly what it looked like i didnt get all the shots i wanted but i got photos of the main places.


this is a walkway that runs past my backgarden it goes from being really well maintained to quite creepy.


this is the other side of the walkway.


this is a walkway that runs by my house an leads across a feild one side is houses the other trees.


this is the lake its not massive but around one side it has trees you can follow it round and it leads to a small opening where the rabbits normal congregate.


this is a slightly closer shot of the lake


this is part of the opening from infront of the lake


i quite liked this shot its taken from infront of the lake looking across the feild on the other side you can see a tower an over the other feilds


this is just another walkway/bridleway i thought could look quite effective.

so there you go these are all from Great Dunmow wich has quite easy access but its also fairly quiet along those fields apart from the occasional dog walkers.

Film ideas

We have produced a complete storyboard for our first scene, and also developed some very interesting ideas. I (Chris) think that a sequence before the main action starts would look really effective, and after we finish storyboarding we will see how well it might work and fit in. We have also developed a symbol which we are going to feature a couple of times in the opening sequence, the first time it will be for the observant viewers, and the second it will flash onto the screen to make viewers think what is this? here is an example of the symbol we might use (final design may vary)

this was created on Adobe Photoshop by us and is supposed to represent some sinister cult that is maybe responsible for the murders that take place in our opening sequences.

Intro outline

Hey guys All of us here

Scene One is essentially set in stone for us now we have a detailed understanding for what we want to do for it. a few minor details such as specific location still need to be addressed but other than that we are sure of what we are going to do.

Sound - will be diagetic and will be a piano scale by In Fear & Faith (used with permission)
Weather - most probably overcast as we are filming in Jan/Feb time
Time - Twilight/ Dusk possibly slightly later depending on lighting availability
Location - still a bit hazy...either ind. estate, private road or bridleway.

Main plotline will be Chris coming out of a ditch and walking along a road towards a camera whilst dragging a dirty spade that will be slightly out of focus. the camera will track him until a certain point and will then stop tracking to allow chris' image to fill the screen at which point he will bring the shovel around into full view, the lighting should show mud and blood on the spade. we could then have the next scene coming in from a fade to black.

We were thinking of mixing the title sequence in with a montage of quick cuts showing small clips of possible progression of the killers resolution to commit the alluded murder, we were then thinking of possibly incorporating some minor credits into scenery e.g, like on cartoons when a character opens a fridge and a producer's name is spelled on the fridge magnets. we may not do the exact same thing but that is a fair example of what we were thinking of doing.

We've got a vague idea of what we want to do in the next scene the opening shot will be of a family happily sitting down to a meal most probably breakfast a complete contrast to the scene we previously saw of chris with the shovel. we were thinking of having diagetic music coming from a radio. We will elaborate on this idea later when we are all together .

Group time

We are finally getting to grips with our intended plot (as discussed in an earlier post) with the three seperate clips. Locations are being worked on, and ollie has found some good potential locations, whilst me and nikki are going to follow suit and check out some other locations. So we are going to start taking photos whilst out and about of good locations that would work for our thriller. Storyboarding will begin soon so we can have a concrete idea laid out. More posts coming soon.

Self Evaluation

Ollie here :D

I just realised that i havn't done this yet and so i think i'll be doing this at regular intervals of perhaps once a week from now on so that i can see how im progressing, or rather how i think i'm progressing. I will be assessing myself on five main criteria: Camera skills, Editing, Group work, motivation to blog (MTB), Quality of posts.
I think i'll rank them out of ten as it is a bit less ambiguous than 5 but will not be as unmanagable as something like 100.

Camera Skills: 4/10 - I think this has to be a low rating because the experience i have had so far has been positive and i felt like i knew what i was doing, however my experience is limited and i was only performing small tasks with it and so i think a four reflects my ability to use a camera effectively

Editing: 2/10 - I think that i really need to sit down with the group and we need to work out how to use final cut express. I know how to use windows movie maker and so im hoping some experience with that will assist my learning of final cut however in comparison Movie maker is trivial next to Final cut and i don't know any advanced techniques. So this rating has to be lower.

Group work: 6/10 - I think I can work well in a group and i really like how we bounce ideas off of each other. I think that when i work with either Chris or Nikki i can stay on task well however i do sometimes get destracted and so this is maybe something to focus on but ultimately i feel that i am doing well in this aspect.

MTB: 8/10 - I feel that i can post effectively and frequently most days without even needing to persuade myself or peel myself away from Facebook so i think this deserves a positive mark at this time, however i expect this to fluctuate as i continue to update my self assessment. This is because i will be rating based on my weeks performance on this criteria as it is hard to generalise.

Quality of Posts: 6/10 - After talking to miss mapp i have realised that i need to include much more external links in my posts in order to attain top-band marks for my posting. other than that though i feel that my posts contain good content and show variation. the use of more links would show my understanding to the technological aspect of the course which is a criteria the examiners are looking for.

that is all.

Mmmmmmm Quite

Yes. I like these ideas.
And Nikki has raised some valid points about lighting and weather. Sadly the snow seems to have passed (or will have when it comes to filming, as that would have looked very cool, and also if we were to film in rain it would have to be very carefully performed and executed, as the moisture can damage the internal mechanics of the camera, but with suitable protection it is a possibility. Definately whenever i envision the walking scene, i see it raining, so definately one to think about.
We shall mull this stuff over tommorow.

Musings

Ollie Here

I Just read nikki's idea about showing the next scene after the titles. I really like this idea, i think it would allow people to either make thier own assumptions whilst alos leaving them on a cliffhanger so they want more. i think if we were to do this we should completely juxtapose the image that the family give off, i.e we should make the scenery/location look really bright and happy to contrast with the previous scenes. This would be effective because it would surprise the audience and gain their attention t oa greater degree

also maybe in the background for diagetic noise we could have a radio playing the in fear and faith song that Chris posted earlier. If we made it so that it came on all of a sudden, like in a random radio playlist, and then quick-cut to chris looking all of a sudden very creepy (we may need to play with your face chris ;). this could link the assumed murder to tie in with that song as previously we would have seen chris listening to it on his ipod whilst drawing the knife. this would effectively give us a cliffhanger whilst further allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions.

let me know what you think guys :)

I think i've fixed it by rewriting the HTML Arduousley.

ollie just a quick one to let you know the photos you uploaded say theyve been removed or deleted so youll have to reupload them :(
or possibly bring them in for us to see as its to do with location.
thanks

Weather

Oh i nearly forgot weather could be an issue aswell but it can also be an advantage

would it cause a problem if it rained? or would it just add to the effect because if it was filmed in the rain it could either look really good or pretty poor and if its really sunny it could make the whole atmostphere seem happier than its suposed to be
when we finally go out to start filming i suggest we look up weather reports and such befor we set a day. :)

Location and Lighting

Hey again Nikki Here

ollie the computer wont let me look at the photos you posted however ill try again on my computer when i get home.
on the subject of location comes the issue of lighting, time of day, and weather.
we need to think about what kind of time we should film most thtillers ive seen its normally a dark but visible place and time so you can see whats happening but giving it an element of mystery unlike in some films we need to make sure we dont make it too dark as you miss vital elements of the film wich can lead it to be very confusing.
if we decide to film at night we can still make artificial light with out the use of actual lights which could be too bright and ruin the effect.
i helped out on a proffesional photo shoot a couple of months ago so we could use some of the techniques they use big white sheets which reflect light especially natural light like the sun and moon without it being too bright which could be handy in the darker hours or use large white cardboard peices or even tin foil can work but if it gets scrunched it wont give even lighting.

we also need to think about lighting in general as if we need the use of artificial light depending where we are we may not have use of electricty or street light so torches an such will be required.

Titles

Nikki Here Longtime no post,

i had two thoughts earlier one to do with titles which we need to include into our work.
i thought the idea we have is really good and really promising but we obviously need to include titles some where, i had two ideas for this we could either have the title coming up over the top of the opening scene like in silence of the lambs just obviously not so bulky and obstructive we could have them sort of sliding in from different directions or just one direction across the bottom of the screen or just generally appearing in a flash an then fading away we could play about with different types of effect on powerpoint.
another idea i had was once the scene has played out we could switch to a black screen and have the titles coming up against a black back ground using some type of special effects once all the title have come and gone i thought itd be quite cool if we had time left to maybe lead on into the next scene and just have something completely different like a family sitting down to breakfast to contradict the previous scene this would then raise questions as to who are they and who where the people in the last scene whats the connection and so on wich ties into the idea of a thriller creating suspence and raising questions

anyway let me know what you think ill upload the other thought i had later :)

Location Location Location

Ollie here :D

I went dog walking today and as promised took some location shots of the area within a mile of my house, lots of black and white shots here because they seemed clearer to me. also i like how artistic they look.

this is an artsy shot of all the mud in the bridle way


this is a colour shot of the bridle way. the bridle way would be a cool place to film i think because it has a creepy feel to it. especially at night time.


Yet another artsy shot of the bridle way


Another entrance to the bridle way, i like how the branches of the bushes stick out eerily.


Lots of Mud. But im thinking we could maybe zoom on the tracks to show a car has been there recently and then cut to the road which is where chris would be walking down?..something along those lines


The field. to give an idea of directional relation the picture of the muddy tracks (above) was taken towards that house.


Possible establishing shot?


Muddy road near my house. i think this could be a distinct possibility for primary filming location.


another possible establishing shot?


The road my house is on.

Feedback and opinions will be needed from Chris and Nikki but as we were thinking of filming around here id love to know any ideas you have :). bear in mind it may not be so muddy when we film so dont let it put you off.