#23 Shot list

Our shot list shows all the shots that will be included in our film, but ones that were also used in out animatic. The images we chose were simple and quick, although for our real film, we would like to use proper people, and dress them up appropriately.

#22 Animatic of our storyboard

Here is the animatic of our story board. It shows all the shots that we will be adding into our film.

#21 Sound for our Movie

For the sound in our movie we wanted to have something that gives of a sense of tesnion. After researching for a long time for a piece of music, we found on which will be perfect. However, we will be adding noise ontop of the track itself, to give a sense of realilty but also to make the viewer feel unsettled. Sounds of footsteps, and smashing noises will be added to out movie.

#20 Story Board for our film

#19 Narrative Theories

The Narrative Theory for MOST films...

 

The narrative theory is almost an outline of how you are going to bit each part into your film. It's a little bit like when you write a poem, in the format of "A,B, AA, BB" when you are wanting to rhyme your sentences. However, here for a film, it goes in 5 stages.

 

 1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

I researched and found this site called Todorov's Theory, which helped me a lot find out what the narrative theory for a film was.

 

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium, which are all showed above!

 

A film that follow these steps perfectly is Die Hard.

1. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is coming home to his family for Christmas and all is calm. (The equilibrium)

2. Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and his team of terrorists take over the nakatomi building which is hosting a Christmas part of which McClane and his wife are attending.

3. (2 points of recognition) McClane isn't in the room when the terrorists storm in so is able to move up the building when he hears screaming. People outside of the building realise there's a disruption when a police man's car is shot at from the building.

4. The police try sending in a SWAT team in which fails. The situation is solved by John McClane throwing Gruber out of a high floor window which kills him.

5. The equilibrium is restored when the police got McClane, his wife and the other hostages out of the building, and the McClanes leave in a police car.

However, you can't apply this rule to all films, as it just doesn't fit in with the ideas. An example of this is Fight Club.

1. The movies starts with Edward Norton (who in this movie has no name so I will call him Edward) trying to cure his insomnia.

2. He discovers that when he cries at these support groups he is able to sleep. (Attempt to repair)

3. After some arguing Edward agrees to hit him and punches him in the ear. After Tyler punches Edward in the stomach and they start to fight. Afterwards they go back to Tylers house, which is in terrible shape. Time goes on and they start to have other people fighting with them in the parking lot, until eventually they get to go into the basement of the bar to fight after it's closed and it is then called fight club. (Recognition of disruption)

4. Tyler goes into his boss's office and tries to blackmail saying he won't tell any of the company's secrets if he pays him. (attempt to repair the damage of disruption)

5. Tyler eventually tells Edward that fight club has evolved into Project Mayhem. (new equilibrium)

#18 Story line of our whole film

Discussing my idea which was on point 12, but also Olivia's which is here:

- Girl is alone, man walks away from her- don't know what happened between them, but either he found something out about her which she did, or she told him to leave. He seems to want revenge on her. She made a mistake. He begins watching her, and haunting her. He plots against her, but we do not know exactly what his plans are. Could he be wanting revenge on her? Or on somebody else? Is it him who did something wrong and not her? We see hints of suspicion of murder. The girl is creeped out, keeps seeing things. Throughout the film there is a creepy soundtrack- children's toy music? a child singing? a single string note on the violin? plucking on a guitar? ..soundtrack must be tense/eery.

So after having discussed all our ideas in our group for what our film is going to be like we came up with this final one.

There would be a young girl, who has a series of china dolls, but each time she sleeps she wakes up in the middle of the night to find that a china doll has gone. Sometimes she finds them in the wardrobe, or next to her bed, or broken down staires. After this happening consecutively, she sees someone tearing one of them apart, and then a woman walking with a leg off the doll. The young girl has only one doll yet but her dad takes it off her as its causing danger. She then sees a girl dressed up as her doll...

#17 What must be included in our film...

In our film, we want to specify in a number of things. These key elements are:

•  Mis-en-scene (surroundings, colour, lighting etc)
• Good lighting, NOT TOO DARK!
• A variety of editing techniques
• Flash back memories
• Good and well chosen sound track
• Dialogue carefully depicted.
• Cinematography should be up to scratch, so that we know what we are doing, and each section is in the right place.

One key 'NONO' for our film is, NO RUNNING THROUGH THE WOODS! This will be boring for the viewer and will limit our mark.

As we found out previously, our audience is primarily for the Alternative people, so we want to stick to the themed ideas that this category gives us, including: Hardcore, gamers, passionate about music, nerds. Our theme to be kept into thoughts is Independent thriller, so this makes our film obviously scary and tense, so this is when the Alternative audience comes into our viewer.

In our film opening, we expect to have tense music, footage that will make the viewer sit on the edge of their chair, and dialogue that will make the audience want to see the rest of the film, (if it was to have one!)

#16 Instituions that might produce, distribute and exhibit our film...

After reseaching looking for companys that manage films, I found the Metrodome Group Ltd.
It is a London-based company that owns, manages and distributes film, TV and digital content. The Company operates through two divisions: Metrodome Distribution (features films and home entertainment in the UK) and Hollywood Classics. The Company includes of over 300 feature films.


This company tries to be cost effective, so make the cost of the film as low as possible, but yet thrilling to watch.

 

Another film Institution is the 20th Cenutury Fox, which is a film cooperation and is one of the 6 American film studios. the organisation was founded in 1935, and has become the most recognised film instution iin the world.

#15 Categorising your audience

Looking at the Pearl and Dean website, we could see how cinematographers categorise their audience for their films. They need to be able to do this, as going to the cinema is a popular thing now, but people either go with their friends, (teenagers) or as a family, so using these two categories, it's easier to decide what they film will be like.

The Paul and Dean website shows three graphs.

These graphs clearly shows the categories used to decide the audience intended.
They help us as it can influence what sort of audience will be wanting to watch our film, as we want to get as many people as we can to watch our Independent Thriller.

#14 My perfecct audience member

We had to find a steryo type, a perfect audience member for our film. After researching, using the site 'UK Tribes' we found out that our perfect audience is Alternative.

These people all have a lot in common.

• Alternative Tribes are passionate about music
• Sharing an appreciation for live music
• Love independent record shops and grass roots talents
• It’s all about authenticity and being ‘real’.
• Usually watch non-fiction genres like thrillers, Independent and Documentaries
• Unusually, Tribe members will buy music to support the artists they love and a dedicated merchandise and gig goers.
• Rather than rebelling against specific objectives, the Alternative segment is motivated by a need to be themselves, nothing more, nothing less.

Alternative people include of: Emos, Hardcore, Nerds, Real Gamers. Skaters etc..

Here is what one may look like.

 

#13 Audience Research

In this clip, we have interviewed people about what movies they think have good openings, and what they like to see in a good film, but also what puts them off.

#12 Mood Board - ideas for my film

I have made a mood board for what I would like to be in my film. Our theme is Independent thrillers, so in order to stick to this, did a little research, as I wasn't sure of what I wanted it to be like.

This is a clip that I found which I found thrilling, so I have taken some ideas from it.




After watching it a couple of times, I started to construct a short passage of a summery of what I want to be in the film.

Every night for the past 2 weeks, Tom, (a made up character) wakes at 5:30am, to the sound of someone crying. Tom sits up in fright. Having never gone downstairs to see who is there, he decides to take this morning to be the first to see what the noise is. His bed creaks as he gets out, and he walks towards the door. Not noticing at first, he trips on a plate that was at the end of his bed. (‘Why was that plate there...I didn’t leave and empty plate in my room?’) he thinks. This panics him. Off he walks down the stairs and the crying stops. Tom cuts short his step, but then continues to walk down. [Editing: Flash back memories of sitting in bed, tripping over the plate, stopping suddenly on the stairs.] Tom walks into all the rooms but sees nothing. A sudden cry alerts and the doorbell rings. (‘Are the two related?’) He walks to the kitchen but it looks just the same, until he walks round the counter in the middle of the room and finds another plate, but smashed on the floor. A few meters away is one more...in the same state. He stares back and forth at the two smashed plates and walks backwards from them...he walks slowly to the door having heard the bell ring earlier. Tom turns the key in the lock, and twists the door handle. [Editing: Flashes the image of him and the opening door.]  

So once I had finished, I then made together my mood board for the film. So here it is.

In my film, I would like to have many different camera angle shots, just like the ones in Skyfall that I analysed.

 

 

 

#11 Key Shots from Skyfall

I chose the opening of Skyfall as it shows many different camera angle shots.
00:03 - Is a low angle shot when Bond falls in the water.
00:24 - Point-of-view shot, of Bond looking at his feet.
00:29 - High angle, of Bond falling and getting dragged into a huge hole.
00:48 - Over the shoulder shot, of a lady looking behind.
01:27 - Long shot, shows surroundings with Bond in the middle.
01:58 - Close up of lady shooting.
03:23 - Mid angle shot, of Bond shooting.
03:49 - Extreme close up of eye.

The film producer chose to use a huge variety of different angle shots to make it interesting for the viewer to watch, and to almost create tension.

#10 Analysis on another thriller

The Black Swan: Opening Sequence

Sound:

The opening sequence of The Black Swan starts with soft piano music playing, leaving the attention to be drawn to the music, as nothing really happens apart from showing the actresses name. As the chalk moves slowly across the page, the piano music has an emotional move to it, and sticks to the pace of the picture being drawn. The music plays more or less at the same pace throughout; although this appears not the case when the person drawing this image starts to make deeper and bolder lines, and this is when the music rises in tempo and gets increasingly louder. Behind the piano music, you can hear the sound of the wind, blowing nervously to the rhythm of the mysterious melody. When the music starts to get extremely tense and loud, many different point-of-view shots are changing quickly and when the chalk breaks and rolls away, there is a sudden smashing noise, and then the swan is shown.

Edit:

Editing is clearly portrayed throughout the sequence, as each shot fades into one another, sometimes even whilst the one before is still on the screen diminishing away. This creates an unsettled feeling for the viewer, as they don’t know where to look, and as the music gets louder and more suspense is made, more and more shots of the drawing are being displayed. About half way through, the music’s almost at its peak tempo and the camera changes its shot angle so we can now see the hand that is drawing it. As the person starts to shade in the swan with thick, bold lines, many different shots are shown, and changing faster and faster as the music speeds up even more. Another direct edit is when the camera focuses on the hand drawing but then suddenly the chalk breaks and rolls away, and the image is faded out.

Camera:

The start of the sequence shows only a black screen, with your eyes only being drawn to the name, ‘Natalie Portman,’ who is the main character in the film. Each time a new shot of the drawing is being shown another name is faded into the screen. There isn’t a huge variety of camera shot angles, as it mainly focuses on the chalk drawing onto the page, with a close up, action on action shot. However, as the music picks up in tempo the camera starts to depict more and more shots of the hand drawing the picture. As soon as there is a huge smashing noise, the shot is change to a birds-eye view of the whole picture showing a swan.

Mis-en-Scene:

The sequence has a very dusk atmosphere to it, making it appear very dark. This contrasts with the music as the piano playing is very graceful but seems to come across being sinister in this piece. This adds to the idea of the dark bold chalk lines, causing a very unsettled atmosphere for the viewer. When the music has a rhythm, which is loud and tense, the chalk is drawing very vigorously and boldly, changing into shading, and the lines are being drawn in the same rhythm as the piano playing. This again suggests something scary is going to happen, which it does, when there is the huge smashing noise, and the Black Swan is shown. Swans are supposed to be known as beautiful and peaceful birds, but here, they become sinister.

#9 Graphic Breakdown on 'The Conjuring'

Here we had to produce a graphic breakdown of the opening of a film from within our genre. Ours, as a group,  was an independent thriller so we chose to write about 'The Conjuring,' as it's just like Trust.

#8 Research on Thrillers

Three common thriller films are: -The Dark Knight
-Jaws
-Twister 
-Harry Potter

These types of movies can be identified by the following traits...
-Suspense

• to give the viewer the feeling of fascination to the movie, with excitement and mixed apprehension.
• Gives viewer on-edge feeling.
• Suspense is about conflict and the obstacles between the protagonist and his goal.
• suspense is often mixed with hope and fear.

-Themes and characters

• Themes: ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, mind games, kidnapping, stalking, death traps and paranoia.

-Main elements

• The protagonist is faced with death, either his and/or her or someone Else's.

-he's faced against a problem (usually death), sometimes an escape or a mystery. Most emphasis on the movie is placed on the protagonist.

• The force of the antagonist's must initially be stronger/wiser than the protagonist's.

-This makes the protagonist have to fight, and be fearful of the antagonist.

• The main storyline for the protagonist is either a quest or a character that cannot be put down.
• The main plot line focuses on a mystery that must be solved.
• The film's narrative construction is overpowered by the protagonist's point of view.
• All action and characters must be credibly realistic or natural in their representation on screen.
• The protagonist and antagonist may battle, themselves and each other, not just on a physical level, but on a mental one as well.
• Either by accident or their own curiousness, each character is dragged into a dangerous fights or a situation that they aren't prepared to resolve.

#6 Film Brief

Picking a film brief was quite tricky, as there are so many thrillers out there, which you think would be so good to remake, but unfortunately you can't. So after a lot of watching and research, we, as a group, found 'Trust' and thought that the trailer would be a good one to remake. We think that it will draw people in, and make people want to watch it. It's main character is a girl, so that's easy to do, and also it has a lot of footage in it that we can easily construct ourselves. It will use a variable amount of sound and music in it, with many different film shots and angles too. So hopefully it will work!

#5 Jelly Baby Task

Our task was to make a film, consisting of only five images and produced by using jelly babies. Our theme we chose was:

1.  Thriller 1 – An indie thriller about someone who is different from everyone else, aimed at a female audience.

So we thought long about how we were going to do this, and made this video! It is about an orange jelly baby who appears to be ginger, and he gets teased by all his 'friends'. He wants to kill himself by jumping of a cliff, but then two black jelly babies come to save him.
I liked doing this task, as it showed imagination but also gave you the chance to use different camera shots. Our task was to make a thriller to do with someone who is different from everyone else, and because we had only one orange jelly baby, we thought of him being ginger, so being teased.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD6tPvOzKlE&list=TLrjk3-CSNg-UXfTrZvrfXWVBi8Ez5b1mC

#4 Prelim Task Film

Here, we had to make a film which showed someone walking into a room and having a conversation with someone, using as many different shot angles we could do.

#3 Shot Library

Here we had to make a shot library which had to include all the different shot angles, so that when we make other films we can relate back to them if needed.

#1 Rolling Production Logo

Here is the logo that I made for my group!

Hello! This is my first post on my blog.
In my prelim task, it is Olivia Dobson, Gemma Mills, and Emma Prendergast.