Thriller Task - Production: Filming Day 1 (13/12/14)

We went to the location we have discovered to create our film, we started with the beginning of the opening which is currently a secret. Instead we made a little video showing how cold it was on the day of the shoot.

We used some of the schools equipment where Andreas reserved all the equipment we needed. Overall we used the:
DSLR Nikon Camera
Glide Cam
Tripod
Zoom Audio Recorder
Boom Mic
Boom Pole
Go Pro Camera

This is the location day shooting form to show that we have acknowledged that all the equipment we have reserved will be used and that we have used props and costume. The risk form we have used is to show that there is a problem with what could happen and that it could potentially harm Andreas when he gets hit in the back of the head with the block of ice.

Thriller Task - Research: Distribution Process of the Film Industry

Thriller Task - Planning: The Pitch

This is the video of the pitch we had to present to Spalding-Welch productions for the opening of our thriller. We used a PowerPoint presentation to additionally present our ideas, I have also uploaded a copy of our pitch for you to view.

With the pitch that we attended with Spalding-Welch productions, we have learnt that maybe we should look more into the age group rating that we intend on marketing the opening production to. In addition we have decided to focus more on the detail of the opening so the most information is released to draw in an audience without giving too much away in the opening 2 minutes.

Thriller Task - Planning: Storyboard for Opening

This is the storyboard to our opening of the thriller. This is our first draft of the opening and will be open to change later in the future if needs be, currently we are going on this plot and we will follow the narrative but will create a new storyboard if we drastically change a part of the opening.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side 1: The first side includes all up to the scene where the victim gets attacked by the antagonist.

The shots that we used were a wide shot, an over-shoulder shot and a two shot , the wide shot is technically our establishing shot as it is setting the mood and theme as the location is mysterious and dark. The over shoulder shot is used to show the action of the victim and the camera shot can suggest someone is behind him (because there is someone behind him). The two shot shows the comparison between both characters and that they are binary opposites as one is evil while the other isn't evil.

 

 

Side 2: This is the scene in which the victim has fallen to the floor and trying to crawl away. Multiple kinds of shots are going to be used to create different effects. On the second box the victim is crawling past the camera while its on a fixed position just to show how fast the victim is moving and that its just fast enough to escape the murderer, however the murderer is doing the cliché slow walk while the victim tries to escape. The over the shoulder shot is used this time to show the height distance between the two characters and that the murderer is in control of the situation and has the power.

 

 

Side 3: In this scene the witness (protagonist) has seen the murder take place and the murderer looks at his own reflection and the notices the witness in which he turns to and then it ends to insinuate that this isn't the only murder to happen or that the murderer is going to get caught. In the last two boxes, we use a shot/reverse shot to show the emotion on both the murderers face and the witnesses face and the next action they are going to take.

Thriller Task - Planning: Target Audience

We created this mindmap to express our views on who will be our targetted audience and who we want to view our thriller to create an effective and engaging response from people who view the thriller and for us to understand how to engage the selected audience by adding or removing parts to the thriller to make it suitable for them.

Thriller Task - Research: Blumler and Katz "Uses and Gratifications" Theory

In 1974, Blumler & Katz created a theory about why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. It is an audience-centred approach to understanding mass communication diverging from other media effect theories that question "what does media do to people?"

Beginning in the 1940s, researchers began seeing patterns under the perspective of the uses and gratifications theory in radio listeners. Early research was concerned with topics such as children's use of comics and the absence of newspapers during a newspaper strike. An interest in more psychological interpretations emerged during this time period.

The theory suggests there are different reasons why audiences consume media texts:

 

 

Katz, Gurevitch and Haas (1973) saw mass media as a means by which individuals connect or disconnect themselves with others. They developed 35 needs taken from the largely speculative literature on the social and psychological functions of the mass media and put them into five categories:

• Cognitive Needs: Acquiring information, knowledge and understanding
  • Media Examples: Television (news), video (how-to), movies (documentaries or based on history)

• Affective Needs: Emotion, pleasure, feelings
  • Media Examples: Movies, television (soap operas, sitcoms)

• Personal Integrative Needs: Credibility, stability, status
  • Media Examples: Video

• Social Integrative Needs: Family and friends
  • Media Examples: Internet (e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, social media)

• Tension Release Needs: Escape and diversion
  • Media Examples: Television, movies, video, radio, internet

(Source: Wikipedia)

The uses and gratifications of media is helpful in the understanding of why audiences view television shows and films. This theory is also helpful in letting us know what kind of person would be incline on viewing the opening of our thriller but also why they are watching and if they would question it making us more aware of what to include or not include into our thriller opening in order to attract and engage and audience.



Thriller Task - Planning: Location Hunting

We went and had our first look at the location in which we plan to film our thriller opening. We found an old car park overgrown with weeds and it is suitable as it is a desolate concrete slabland. We have chosen to film here as it is out of the way of the public and it suits the theme of it being a psychological thriller. As a result we all agreed on filming in this abandoned car park.

We spent about 30 minutes here looking around the entire site and we realised that by 4:30pm it was getting too dark and we thought that we would need to film when its light and make it darker in post-production rather than making it lighter from a dark film shoot.

As a result we decided that filming would take place on weekends and on days where we had no lessons in the afternoons to film our creation.

We also decided on specific areas in the grounds to film certain scenes such as an area which the murder is carried out and a little but behind that is where the murderer will remorse, and in addition be scared as to what is happening ect.

We looked at a puddle which could play a key role in showing the murderers remorse and confusion and in addition to this, we can make the little bit of water effective in showing who the character is and elaborate on his emotions in just the short time we have to create this opening to the thriller.



Once again the gang managed to make an impressive photo with the opportunity to photoshop in the near future, they decided to look interestingly at what i call the "pine cone of the urban societies".

Thriller Task - Research: How Is The Industry Regulated?

This is a powerpoint i created on how the industry of film and television is created. This would be helpful for our thriller opening as we will use these to work out what ratings are used in what films and how we can control what stuff is featured in our opening to make the film suitable for some people of certain age groups.

Press the full screen button below to enlarge the PowerPoint.

Thriller Task - Research: Kuleshov Experiment Editing Practice

I decided to practice cutting by attempting my own kuleshov experiment, this shows that we can create different emotions from different things because of the way you can edit the clips to manipulate what the person is doing. This will be handy in our thriller opening as it will be able to show the audience the emotion of the characters and how and/or what is causing the emotion to be triggered.

The cutting which has been used in this clip is going to be used during the main opening of the thriller, we can use this to quickly switch between the clips without the audience seeing a difference or without slowing the plot down. In addition, we will use the cutting to maintain the use of the specific negative emotions we aim to achieve within the opening of the thriller.  

Thriller Task - Research: Titling Textual Analysis

We looked into other title sequences from other thrillers in order to get an idea of what an opening to a thriller should be like. One thriller we looked at was 'Splice'. This was a medical thriller about a baby in a womb, and was shown quite early this synopsis from the title sequence itself. The titling itself got its own section, accompanied with eerie music, to set the tone of the film quite early to be quite gruesome; shown from the titles. While we aren't doing any kind of medical thriller, the way in which the text was used to set the tone of the film was very informative and useful.
Splice title sequence

Another opening sequence we looked at was 'Psycho'. This is a psychological thriller; an aspect we may plan to use in our film. It uses black and white colours to emphasize the psychological aspect as the two colours are of opposite ends of the spectrum. The lines crossing through the title show that there is some form of 'elimination' as a theme; the crossing out showing removal and potentially deaths. This was useful as we may plan to add psychological aspects into our thriller, and the connotations of a psychological film would use.

We also looked at the action/horror thriller 'Final Destination 3', a film about unique ways to die in peculiar circumstances. As our thriller is to involve a killing - possible multiple in the full version - we thought this was a good one to look into. It also had action, which is going to be prevalent in our film. It had eerie music to indicate it was a thriller, (most likely involving death), but it used bright light of a fair in contrast to this. This is peculiar as it is unique, but also could mislead some people. The film has 'unexpected' deaths - what the series is known for - and this may have be their way of luring in new viewers to the franchise. It was also an interesting use, as the screaming of people can be heard through the sequence. This may indicate the death that is prevalent in the film; covered up initially by the fair. This was an incredibly clever opening, and while we cannot use a fair in aid of our thriller, the hidden connotations within the opening is something we have begun to think about.

Overall, the title sequence can reveal much more than we first realized, and can set the tone for the film in just two minutes. Music is key in these openings, while keeping the audience interested with relevant shots that are mysterious and misleading. This could be used in our thriller to make the titles show information during the opening to show the viewer specific information such as the main cast, director and producer.

Thriller Task - Research: Production Process - 6 Stages

Thriller Task - Research: (Case Study) Company: Paramount Studios

I created a Glog to show my case study of my chosen company (Paramount Pictures). They create a frequent amount of thrillers, especially with the psychological thriller genre. Using some of the information in this, it might indicate how we create our opening by using some of the ways in which paramount create their films.



Paramount Pictures Glog

(The video in the Glog is one of the Paramount Pictures Logo, if the video does not work please use this link to view video.)

Thriller Task - Research: Disabilities in Film & Television

Cinema has rarely touched on the disability subject, films are rarely seen having mentally or physically impaired characters. The first disabled character portayed by a disabled character did not star on British Television until 1992 in the BBC soap "Eldorado". In the present day; drama has made space for disabilities such as motor neuron disease, obsessive compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions. But most parts are still played by able bodied actors, disabled actors and filmmakers continue to fight to be equal in there stories and past being depicted on television. (Source: Unlimited: Disability on Screen - BFI Disability Article)

The study of a small screen diversity came up with results showing that younger and male people are more represented in television and the representation of disabled, ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay and bisexual people were much less. These statistics below show how disabled people are represented in television:
Women: 42%
Over 55: 16.1%
Minority ethnic: 13.4%
Disabled: 2.5%
Lesbian, gay or bisexual: 1%
(Source: Women, Old and Disabled Under-Represented - The Guardian Article)













Many disabled actors were embarrased to take on disabled characters on television. In addition to this, many disabled people are absent in shows such as soaps and quiz shows despite having more than 250 disabled members in the Actors Union in the UK. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant create projects which go against the culture of discrimination, and they highlight these issues. Their new series, Life's too short, which stars Warwick Davies playing a twisted version of himself.
(Source: Ricky Gervais and Disabled Actors - The Guardian Article)

"There aren’t enough disabled people on TV. To address this, the BBC has announced plans to quadruple the number of people with disabilities it puts on television by 2017." This shows that tv corporations are now beginning to represent more disabled people on TV. This is shown as there is next to nothing about disabled characters on television series or movies in the present day.
(Source: The BBC’s Plans for More Disabled People on TV - New Statesman Article)

This has shown that in the film and television industry, there is a problem that not enough disabled characters being represented and that there will/needs to be an increase. This has given us the decision in whether we should consider having a disabled character in our opening of the thriller. We have given this a thought as we are considering the use of a disabled character as a way to promote that all disabled people are not to be stereotyped.

Thriller Task - Research: (Case Study) Director: J.J. Abrams

I created a Glog to show my case study of my chosen director (J.J. Abrams). His use of lens flares and other trademarks to do with mystery plots has given me and my group ideas on what to add into the narrative and post-production of our thriller opening to make it more engaging and effective.

J.J. Abrams Glog
(The video in the Glog is one of J.J. Abrams talking about mystery, if the video does not work please use this link to view video.)

Thriller Task - Research: Lighting Practice

We began our lighting practice and we took a few pictures to show certain light reflections and how it showed the mood of the person. We also shared the camera around so the different people in our group had a chance at using the camera.

Firstly we used artificial light looking upwards at Andreas to show the mood of possible confusion or sadness, this is shown by the light focusing more on his mouth and above his eyes where sadness is shown most on the face.

We also took the shot from above to make Andreas look more intimidated as the light is shown more when the photo was taken at a higher angle.

We used two artificial lights for this picture of Max, one was placed on the left part of his body and one was placed above his head but to the left to make the whole left part of his head brighter than the right side. This is shown to make Max look happy, as the light shines on his smile and it makes him show a curious/happy face.

We also took this shot from above to make the light show more and that Max shows a larger smile when his head is leaning backwards to make him look upwards. In addition to this, we used the high angle shot to show Max's glasses reflect a shadow onto his face which show a good effect of making his face look secretive.

The use of sideways light is also useful in showing a sinister expression shown in the photo of Brad. Again, we used artificial light in the photo, one light was placed to the left of Brads face showing one half and the other light was placed to the right of his head lighting up the background to make the other half of Brads face darker and to contrast the light.

This is used to create binary opposites in where the dark and the light meet and to create an effect to make Brad look more evil and to make the audience believe (or think) that he is a protagonist just by using the light and his facial expression.

In this photo of Me, we used the natural light seeping through from behind the blinds to attempt to make an effect. There was one artificial light placed next to the camera aiming at me but in this photo it did not come out in a good quality.

The light from behind is supposed to show that there could be something else in the shot to look at apart from my head. This is useful to make multiple things happen at once during the shot.

In this image, we used the natural light in the room to make Andreas' head stand out to the background. Even though the light in the background is fairly similar to Andreas' head, it makes Andreas' head stand out as it makes his hair brighter.

In this photo of Brad, we used the light created from the ceiling lights in the room to make Brad look intimidating, this is shown by the low angle shot but in addition the light shining down on him makes the front part of his body slightly darker which could also show how he could be an antagonist and how evil he will look when the light is shown making him darker from the front.

I got bored at home again and like usual, Max was able to give me a perfect facial expression to create an amazing picture.











When I was walking home the other day I took a picture with the deep fog that was present. This made the picture effective and if fog is a frequent weather problem then our group could possibly use the fog to our advantage to make lighting more significant and to give the opening a darker feel and a colder atmosphere.




This lighting practice has helped us for when we film our thriller opening. The use of lighting is very important for when the film is being produced as it is used to connote dark emotions with the aim of using low key colours, with the addition of post-production tools such as the hue, saturation & colour it means we can manipulate the dark emotion connoted from the opening. With the use of graphic matches and light comparisons, we can make sure the transitions between clips are also correct and fit the continuity of the opening.

Thriller Task - Research: Brief History of Thriller Movies

This is the brief history of thriller movies, it shows how the whole genre of thriller as a movie has transformed from the beginning with Alfred Hitchcock and Safety Last into the modern era of gore and intensity. I believe I can use this to my advantage in the creation of the thriller opening as it gives me and insight on what was popular and what is currently popular in the modern era of thriller films. It also contains key moments in the genre where directors like Hitchcock created thrillers and also contains key moments in the genre such as the age of spy thrillers or the beginning of psychotic thrillers.

Thriller Task - Research: Se7en (1995) Textual Analysis

Thriller Task - Planning: Initial Ideas for our Thriller Movie

We spent one lesson working out what we will do for our thriller movie idea, this is a mini poster we created to show out ideas and what our plan is from the outset of the task.







































Adding on to this post, we have decided further on what mask to use, we are considering the mask known from groups such as "anonymous" and from the film V for Vendetta but we are mostly edging towards the use of a basic white mask with potential red paint to indicate blood spatter or any kind of evidence that the mask is old or used.

Barthes' Narrative Codes

Barthes is a French critic who created the theories about different codes which are used in thrillers to make them effective. He used different codes to show different ways in which thrillers engage audiences.

One of these codes is an Action Code, this is what is used for the audience to recognise the next logical step in the narrative, for example if two people with fast cars are waiting at a traffic light, the next logical step is they would race. Or another example is if someone is packing a suitcase then it will indicate that they will be going somewhere. These codes are used to make the audience understand and guess what the narrative will progress into before the narrative actually does this. This would add a sense of dramatic irony or possibly suspense.

Another code is the Mystery Code (alternatively known as an Enigma Code) which is designed to add a sense of mystery into the thriller which would intend to draw an audience in as they would like to know an answer to the film. An example of this is if an attack on someone happens but you do not know who caused the attack, you would be incline on watching further to be able to find out who the attacker is.

The Semic Code is a code in which the use of a sign is designed to show you a meaning of the thriller. Examples of this is a knife or a firearm would be used to show violence or the use of the sun may be used to show the meaning that the narrative is set on a sunny day. A Cultural Code is also used to in the narrative to make sense to an audience which is aware of the culture or social aspects. It makes reference to the real world that the audience would recognise, such as Aston Martin cars may be recognised for its roles in James Bond films or Owls and Wands in Harry Potter.

 

The Code of Oppositions is referred to a narrative which is dependent on binary opposites such war vs. peace or male vs. female. Thriller videos may use this to show the protagonist and antagonist where a protagonist would mostly have bright colours on etc. whereas the antagonist would where darker colours.

In our preliminary video, we used multiple Barthes' narrative codes to make the thriller preliminary task to be effective. One code that we used was a Semic Code, we used the code when Max was using the gun. This was effective as it made the audience know that the narrative would have been a violent one as the gun symbolises violence. The Action Code was used with this as the gun being used on camera would have lead to the audience thinking someone would be killed which happened when Max shot Andreas. Another code we used was the Mystery Code, it was used when Max was aiming at Andreas and we tried to provoke the question as to why and then it was all answered when the flashback had happened.

We could have used a Cultural Code if we chose a more relevant location like a dark basement or a disused factory to show how rough and gangland/mafia/hitman it could have been, this could have been improved by the characters dressing more appropriately. The Code of Oppositions could have been used by the protagonist and antagonist being binary opposites through how they acted and what they wore to clearly identify the narrative and who the characters were in terms of who the antagonist and who the protagonist were.

Conventions of a Thriller Movie

The thriller is a broad genre and incorporates literature, film, gaming and television. It is made up of multiple overlapping sub-genres which make the whole thriller category known to people. The way in which thriller videos work is by the use of certain features. Thriller's often use fast paced scenes with frequent amounts of action, mystery or fear depending on what sub-genre is used. In addition to this, the use of suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers often make thrillers a genre which excites people and will make the audience engage with what they view. "A thriller provides the sudden rush of emotions, excitement, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace." extract from wikipedia.

There are multiple types of sub-genre thrillers which use multiple effects to make the media interesting and engaging. In a spy thriller such as James Bond's 8th instalment "Live and Let Die". "Three British agents investigating drug smuggling are killed under mysterious circumstances. Each murder is linked to a Harlem crime boss, Mr. Big, and an international diplomat, Kananga. The British send agent James Bond to investigate. When 007 arrives in New York he is nearly killed by one of Mr. Big's hoods, but the attempt gives Bond a lead and he soon discovers a plot to flood the US mainland with a billion dollars' worth of heroin (extract from Live and Let Die IMDb)". The film often uses action, and a fast pace throughout the movie which is utilised to engage the audience. In addition it uses a simple narrative of a hero vs. rival which means for an easy understanding storyline.

Another sub-genre of thrillers is a medical thriller. They are designed to use effects such as suspense and possible cliff hangers. 2011 movie Contagion is a good example. "Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a worldwide epidemic as the CDC works to find a cure (extract from Contagion IMDb)". This thriller uses such concepts of suspense as the epidemic becomes larger but also includes a mystery as to how this epidemic began, the use of mystery in thrillers is used frequently as it is designed to draw the viewer in and a use of such mystery codes will make the viewer watch as they are intrigued as to how this all began.

Thrillers are on a much grander scale and because of this it makes large companies able to create complex or fast pace concepts in which will engage viewers. This also means that they are able to make thriller conventions effective by the use of lighting and camera movement. In most thrillers pan and tracking shots are often used towards the beginning of films which is used to set the scene and to engage the viewer as to what is happening and add mystery if there is any (with guidance from thriller slideshare).

The mise-en-scene of thriller films are fairly similar. Most of them will use modern age equipment such as cars and weaponry to make the fast paced action a common effect and to make this work some thrillers are set up in areas where weapons are likely to happen. But in addition the location is specific to the narrative of the thriller. The mise-en-scene will be set to where the story is such as a 1920's detective movie would perhaps be filmed in New York with the use of Tommy Guns and Revolvers. Whereas a sci-fi thriller could be set in a future metropolis such as Neo-Seoul in the film Cloud Atlas.

The research I did during this task will be used to help me and my group decide what sub-genre of thriller we will choose when we begin planning our main thriller task.

Preliminary Task: Evaluation

This is the video of my evaluation, I decided to make a video to show my understanding of technology and that I can use a wide range of different media and technology items.

Titling Practice

In a recent lesson, we practiced titling effects to make our thriller videos have some good titles in them and to also give us a little practice with making titles using Adobe After Effects. This won't be the best titles you have ever seen as this is the first time I ever used Adobe After Effects.

Case Study (Lie to Me): Powerpoint Presentation

This is some research I conducted on the different representations and types of camera angles and effects used in the popular drama, Lie to Me*. The research based on the zeitgeist and different camera techniques used during the show will be useful for me during the main task as it gives me an incite in what kind of camera angles I would be able to use.


If the video's do not work use video and this video.

Preliminary Task: Final Video (Max: The Killing)

We finished our preliminary video task. The final piece is below.



This preliminary task was created using skills that were brought into the group by the specific people. Andreas was in charge of the filming and angles as he has had past experiences with the camera. Max was in charge of the music as he has had an extensive background of producing, utilising music and his passion for music and Myself, I was in charge of the editing side as I know how to use editing software to an extent with my past skills on YouTube being utilised.

Once we had finished filming which Andreas filmed (I filmed when Andreas was on camera) using the Nikon, he passed it over to me where I started the editing of the Hallway section, Andreas started editing on the main part at the same time to finish the post production on our half quickly to give Max enough time for the audio side of the film. Once we had finished the editing, we handed it over to Max where he added music he created to the film and added sound effects to make the entire film full of suspense, he also added a nifty Inception sound at the end.

The script for the film was created by Max and myself and we made the use of the flashback to give a little narrative to the film and to depict who the protagonist and the antagonist were.

Overall, this preliminary task was incredibly fun and it was a good experience filming our own narrative and to see how it was played out.

Case Study (Utopia): Essay Question

What is effective about the opening to "Utopia season 2 episode 6"?

In the opening of the last episode of season 2 of Utopia, you see that the antagonist is a sociopathic character. In the opening scene he speaks about opening a child's throat with a knife and from saying that and how he says it, it depicts him as a sociopathic character. Also from his voice you can tell he is a violent man despite the fact no violence is taking place. This also helps from the sight of his dominant figure and his stern voice which makes the woman scared whilst she talks to him. In addition the camera angles used whilst at the antagonist are mid-shots to show his face whilst he talks but when he gets up, the low angled shot shows how intimidating he is compared to the woman and the child he just scared and the casual walk he takes as he leaves makes him seem as if he didn't care at all. This would potentially shock audiences as normally on TV it isn't acceptable to condone violence but as it is after the 9pm water shed, the ideas of violence come at the users will.

In the opening scene the use of the male being an antagonist and the female shows how people would be stereotyped in todays world. The male being all defensive and talking over the woman may promote a stereotype that most males would act like that and in a way which would act hostile like in the opening scene. It also depicts how women could be innocent around the presence of a man and that they become naturally defensive of their child's welfare which is shown by the woman around the antagonist at the beginning of the episode. The use of close up camera angles during the dialogue between the two characters shows the woman's emotion as the antagonist speaks and it may depict how scared and emotional women may become around a threat.

In the opening scene the use of sound make the scene effective. The use of non-diegetic sounds makes the audience feel suspense in the opening scene and with the use of the uncomfortable sounds it may make the audience ask questions about the antagonist as he confronts the child and his mother at the bus station and in addition the us of diegetic sounds like commuters and bus noises adds a sense of realism into the opening scene in which the antagonist and the woman confront. This may shock the audience as it may make them think its in real life and that this could happen to them.

Overall the opening scene is effective because of many different techniques which add a straight forward narrative into a 2 minute clip which can then engage the audience into the episode.

The research I have done in this essay question will be able to help me when I begin my thriller task as I can use some of the conventions which were present in this opening into my own thriller and do utilise some of the stereotypes to possibly promote some emotions and feelings towards possible characters.

Case Study (Utopia): How Utopia Got Its Comic Book Effect

In cinematography, most scenes are coloured with greens, blues and reds. In Utopia, the director Marc Mullen says he used the opposite with yellows, cyan and magentas.

Marc Munden & colourist Aidan Farrell carefully colour-corrected each shot in post production. They use a grading software known as Nucoda Film Master instead of brush or pen.

Season two had some changes to the post-production, where the set was changed to be pre-prepared for grading, the colourists were now able to make it more bolder being able to add more yellows, cyan and magentas.

Looking at this article, it may help me with how the contrast could potentially lay out in my thriller video later in the year. It also shows that it is easily possible to make a rainy cold day lookout to be a sunny day which could be effective in my thriller video.

Preliminary Task: Video Shooting Has Began...

We began filming our narrative and with the use of the locations we have picked, it has gone well  and to plan so far. Currently we need to use the weapon which is a replica of a Colt Peacemaker and in order to use it we need to have Mr Welch present so no one gets the idea we are starting a school massacre. In addition, we have done the editing for the non-weapon shoots which consist of the walking parts where the gun wouldn't be visible.

Preliminary Task: Editing Practice

As we start filming on Tuesday, we began looking into the editing parts of the task by having a little play with Adobe Premiere Pro. I made this video by cutting and adding effects such as ghosting and different colour effects to this cat video.

Preliminary Task: Location Hunting

Max, Andreas & myself have begun the production part of the preliminary task and by doing so we have began hunting for a good location in the school to begin filming.

Science Corridor

In the picture above, the science corridor provides a good mise-en-scene as it gives the overall effect of the film an eerie setting and with both diegetic & non-diegetic sounds with will add in later this would be effective in showing negative connotations of how the movies narrative plays out.

We also looked into different places in which we could have filmed and out of all of the locations we looked at, we all took the decision to use both the science corridor and the English store cupboard.

These are some of the other places we considered, we didn't believe the ICT corridor was big enough and the humanities corridor was too bright even with the lights off.

Like usual, Max did something worth making a funny picture out of.


EDIT: We decided not to use the English store cupboard in the end but to use the Science computer room as it was easier to access and it was closer to where the science corridor was so that we could get more filming done in the time we had available.

Preliminary Task: Storyboard

This is the storyboard that indicates how we will carry out the practice film. It shows the camera angles, and how we will position the protagonist and the antagonist. Our narrative is the antagonist (Max) is an assassin hired to kill the protagonist (Andreas) who is all tied up. The film will show the antagonist going to the protagonist, killing him and ending shortly after some dialogue.

Side 1

Side 2

Preliminary Task: Brief

In this task I have partnered up with Max and Andreas. We have to make a short film showing different camera angles as a practice for the main task later in the school year. In addition, we have also learnt what continuity editing is and how we will implement this into our film. The continuity editing techniques we learnt were:

• 180 Degree Rule - A basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object in a scene. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first. The object that is being filmed must always remain in the centre, while the camera must always face towards the object.

Diagram of the 180 degree rule.

• Match-On-Action - Refers to film editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shot's action. Although the two shots may have actually been shot hours apart from each other, match on action gives the impression of continuous time when watching the edited film.

• Shot/Reverse Shot - A film technique where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

Example of shot/reverse shot from Casablanca.

Framing a Shot: The Laughing Gif

Max, Emma & myself really enjoyed our task for yesterday and in response I made this .gif. I decided to make this .gif as a way of practicing with creating .gif files.