Screengrabs

Thriller Feedback

Positive aspects:
- variety of camera shots and angles
- the music towards the end was very good and mirrored the intensity of the moment
- the heavy drumming makes the simple and innocent scene seem tense - it contrasts well
- brilliant soundtrack, enjoyed change in beat when shot changes
- like the quick fast cuts throughout the opening sequence 
- like where the beat speeds up to what he sees happening in the future/newspaper
- the use of props is effective, good visual to tell the viewers what happened
- fast slideshow of pictures worked well with music
- close up on the eyes is used well to show a strong, powerful emotion later contrasted with a weak, worried emotion
- use of non diegetic sound is good and keeps the piece flowing until it's interrupted by the diegetic sound of the toast which draws attention to the emotion he's feeling
- close up of words in paper, characters eyes = effective
- music was good throughout and close ups were good
- build up of crash and newspaper shots - way it quickly changes is effective
- effect of shots of newspaper
- different camera angles, 360 degree, music throughout made opening really fluent


Areas of improvement:
- music is uneven, some shots go on for too long
- the newspaper article he reads is different to the images, editing/directing needs to improve
- pace could do with being quickerover the breakfast scene, name at the end makes it look like a trailer
- soundtrack could be a bit quieter
- music is repetitive
- feet and hand images look amateur, use better blood/sfx silicone
- soundtrack was quite repetitive, use more variety of sound loops
- I would change the background track, got annoying
- put effects on the titles
- use emphasis on the diegetc sounds and make them louder than backing track to give sense of normality
- plot was not understood, make it clearer
- I don't really like the backing music as it doesn't fit with the theme of the thriller
- maybe some more dramatic sound as well as the ones used would have created more tension

Title pane

Pane 1: The lighting we used is natural, to create a better sense of reality. The first location we used was that of a natural street to also create a better sense of reality.
Pane 2: The second location we used was a normal kitchen to highlight the man's everyday life.
Pane 3: We used props in the kitchen scene such as tea, a kettle and toast to build the suspense with the noises.
Pane 4: Costume: We used a normal businessman's outfit, of a shirt, trousers, shoes and a laptop case, to highlight his normal walk to work.
Pane 5: Our title's font is didot, and we used the effect of earthquake and strobe to make it shake.
Pane 6: This pane shows a new angle, in the form of a high angle
Pane 7: This one shows the special effects we used including the distortion of the picture, a thriller convention as it is extraordinary events happening in ordinary moments
Pane 8: Another camerawork pane - close up and zoom into the businessman's eye to show his vision
Pane 9: Still image of the newspaper article. Shows the thriller convention of the enigmas in the film (the fact he has realised he is psychic) as he does not know what to do

Rough Cut Thriller Project

Planning for our shoot - 05/03/2011

The weather for Sunday is grey but luckily rain is not forecast, so our filming should go to plan.

The grey weather could be advantageous to us, in aiding the thriller in intensity.

Social groups portrayed by the media in cinematography

There aren't any major social groups portrayed in our film opening, aside from maybe the stereotypical businessman. However, we have tried to keep our film separate from themes showing social groups in specific ways, in an attempt to avoid any discrimination, or to make our film seem generic, however, we have used a stereotypical business man in our film. We did some research and found the film 'Falling Down', which is based on the bad day of a businessman (played by Michael Douglas) who loses his mind as his day gets progressively worse as he tries to get home for his daughter's birthday.
This is another example of a film where an 'average joe' businessman's day is turned upside down by something extraordinary.

This scene is an example of where the man is annoyed and takes it out on innocent bystanders:
Falling Down 'Wammybear' Scene

Film Rating

The thriller movie "Rift" will be aimed at a 15 audience, for a few reasons:

Firstly, we are hoping to have a relatively dark atmosphere in the movie, with a sense of peril throughout, a sense of pressure too adult for a rating below 15.

The film will also involve adult topics such as violence, and vulgar language throughout. These scenes would be used tastefully, however the use of such topics will rate the film at a 15.

Below are the guidelines in which a 15 is rated against:

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 . The strongest terms 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.

Titles Practice

This is the second time we have practiced with our titles. This time, we've used a different song which we have edited ourselves on Garageband.

BLACKOUT

The film i have choosen to write my essay about is called BlackOut, it is a claustrophobic thriller about a group of individuals who become stuck in a lift during a holiday weekend in their apartment block, in the small space the 3 people become agitated and their tempers start to fray.

The opening titles are very edgy as they use the same sort of effect that we have choosen for our media project opening titles, the flickering titles give the effect that something is not quite right. As the actual film comes into view we can see an old house, the furniture in the house is very old fashioned at first and gives us the feel that there is something mysterious about the house. Next the cmaera begins the pan across the room which is still giving the same effect as the intital shot, the house seems very old and the slow panning gives the viewer an eerie feel. As the camera is panning round the room you can hear the dripping of a tap or shower, this noise is very creepy as we later find out in the pan that the dripping is infact the dripping of the blood onto the floor, behind the hand coming out of the bath we can see a man, although we can not make out what he looks like as the shot is focusing on the hand and arm coming out of the bath. At first we think that the man sitting in the background of the shot has murdered the girl in the bath, but the next shot of the man is when he is sitting in the background and the arm is once again in the foreground which could once again make us think that the man is looking over the work he has done however the shot moves from focusing on the arm to actually focusing on his face, that seems striken with grief. This could tell us that he has either come in the bathroom to find the girl with the slit wrist or he has fully realise what he has done and is now coming to terms with his actions. The man starts to "narrate" his thoughts on what he has lost, however we can not fully trust him as he may be an unreliable narrator because things are coming from his side. His eyes aren't looking at the slit on the girls wrist but he is infact looking at the girls face, showing that he has a connection with the victim because he doesn't care about the slit he only cares about the look on the girls face and her eyes.

Our Thriller Poster

We used photoshop to create this image. We copied the eye in colour into a black and white layer of the whole image and added text. We used the image of the eye as it is significant in our film about seeing the future, and is a traditional thriller convention.

Production Logo Ideas

We have chosen Sandbox to be the name of our production company. We decided to create a futuristic logo for Sandbox Productions, and decided to keep the image somewhat generic to allow a variety of different films to be produced by the company in the future, without limiting it to a certain genre.

The programme used to develop the image was Adobe Photoshop, and we found the images online and the text on an online text generator.

Titles Practice

This is our Titles practice. We used the font 'Didot' and the effects of earthquake and strobe. We feel these effects fit in with the name of our thriller film 'Rift'.

The section after the initial title was added in a quick attempt to show what the in-movie titles will look like, obviously having the text over a moving image in the final production.

Location Recce

 Location Recce - Kitchen

Here are some images of my kitchen which could potentionally be used a the film set for the kitchen scene in our thriller "Rift" the ideal scene in our head would be to see the character doing his morning routine but having extreme close ups of mundane things such as the kettle boiling, stirring the tea and buttering the bread, my kitchen has a seating area in which the main character in our film could potentionally pick up his newspaper to reveal the shocking news about the car crash. The kitchen is very bright as there are two large windows plus a conservatory next to it meaning there could possibly be alot of natural lighting or we could use the blinds and close the doors and provide our own synthentic lighting to get the feeling of an early morning. I have taken 4 shots of my kitchen, one being in each corner of the room to get a real feel for the space.

Titles Practice

This is a screen shot of the titles we have been practicing for our thriller film project in Final Cut. We used the Text tool to create our titles and then added the effects of 'Earthquake' and 'Strobe'. The image of the kitchen is the kitchen we will use in our final project.

Test shots of the 360 degree spin

Below are two potential ways in which we could choose to film the 360 degree shot signalling the start of the vision, either using a dolly or handheld.

Using a Dolly
When we used a dolly, we received varied results. The overall consensus is that the dolly made the filming really smooth on the surface we chose to film on. However, any bump on the surface, created a noticable jolt in the filming process. We also cannot gaurantee that the surface that we choose to film on in Cambridge will be perfectly smooth like the one we chose in the college grounds. The final issue of using the dolly is the sound made by the wheels on the ground. This is only a minor issue because we will be planning to have a soundtrack playing over the filming.

Filming without a dolly
We decided that filming without a dolly was much easier than filming with one. We decided this for many reasons, first of all, if the cameraman/woman uses a steady hand, then the filming can still be very stable and have minimal jolts. Filming without a dolly also eliminates any problems associated with the street surface, seeing as it is easier to alter the position of the camera in your hands opposed to changing the height and position of the camera whilst attached to the dolly. The section of the clip where the camera must zoom in on the character's eye is also much easier when handheld seeing as the camera user can literally move the camera towards the actor and zoom at will.

Font Ideas for our Titles

Font idea for the title 'Rift':



We like the look of this font for our title because the effect is very thriller-like. The jerky letters link to a 'rift' in the font, just like a rift in time and space in our opening.




We also like this font as the breaks and cuts in the letters also link to our title. It gives a hint to what is to come.



Another font is this one - all the fonts we are interested in using have breaks and cuts in the letters, linking to our title.




This is the fourth font we are considering for our thriller opening title. It has a broken effect like the others but the boldness compared to the white gaps really stands out and sets it apart from the other fonts.

Props & Costume

The costume for our protagonist - the only character you see in our opening - is a black business suit and a black briefcase. This represents his job and portrays him as a normal every day businessman. This fits in with the thriller convention of extraordinary things happening in an ordinary environment.

The props we need include:
- briefcase - for our main character
- broken glass/plastic, fake blood - for the car crash images
- newspaper - for the kitchen scene
- cup of tea/spoon, plate/knife/butter - for the kitchen scene

Children's Film Analysis

We could have improved our childrens film in a few ways, here are three ways in which we could of improved it -

• Plan - We didn't succesfully plan our media project so therefore we wasted too much time on the preparation of our set and props instead of planning our script and camera shots.
• Script/Shot List - We didn't set up a proper shot list which would have allowed us to know what shots we were doing as we were filming, also we hadn't prepared a script therefore we didn't know what our characters would say.
• Sound - We didn't really try to make our sound fit in with our childrens film because we spent too long editing the film and didn't have time to correctly choose the soundtrack for our childrens film.

Why Thrillers Thrive

Why Thrillers Thrive

I think that the main points made by this article are telling us that a thriller is a different from most other types of film, because of the sense of “danger” we are putting ourselves in seems great however in our subconscious we know that we are fine. It also talks about how a thriller is different to other films, they allow the viewer to think more about what they are watching, instead of going to the cinema and seeing a romantic film where they know what the plot will be whereas when they watch a thriller they will think up numerous plots yet none of them will be correct because thrillers are the most diverse genre. They can do what you expect but have a twist at the end or they can have a twist at the beginning leading to a bigger twist at the end.

A thriller gives you thrills but not the kind that leave you fearing for you life, like the sideshow the news article talks about, this is a different kind of thrill, a thrill that people didn't like because it made them feel vulnerable, whereas a thriller you will always be safe even if you feel like the antagonist is standing over you and breathing down your neck.

It is quite amazing how this article is from the 1930's yet you can read it like it was written today, this is because it is talking about thrillers and thrillers will always stay the same yet they will always be so enjoyable, whereas other films move with the times and they change.

Shot list

GENERAL SHOT LIST
The date 'February 7th, 2009' appears on the black screen. 
Then, a man in a smart business suit is walking down a street in the morning [variety of shots: long shot, close ups of his face/suit, low/high angles, tracking movement], obviously on his way to work. 
He freezes in the middle of walking, his face a picture of horror.  A 360 degree pan around him adds to the surreal effect. with a zoom in to the man's right eye. [photographs - close ups of the crash]
He has seen a car crash, and photographs show parts of the crash such as broken glass and a crushed car. 
The next scene, a flashback, shows the date 'February 20th, 2009' with the man sitting in his kitchen in the morning   [long shots, close ups of his face and actions], buttering his toast and drinking his tea, reading a newspaper of that exact crash he sees in the next few weeks [close ups on newspaper's words such as crash, dead].     




SPECIFIC SHOT LIST
Location: Street
Shot 1: (Present) Long shot of the front of the man walking, establishing shot
Shot 2: (Present) Close up of his hand holding his briefcase
Shot 3: (Present) Close up of his face
Shot 4: (Present) Long shot from behind him, showing him walking
Shot 5: (Present) Medium close up of his feet walking
Shot 6: (Present) Close up on his face, horrified
Shots 7-25: (Present) 360 degree around him
Shot 26: (Into man's mind) Zoom in on his eye
Shots 27-34:(Man's vision): Photographs of the crash
Shot 35: (Present) Medium close up, the man drops his suitcase in shock


Shot 36: (Present) Long shot on the man reading a newspaper in his kitchen
Shot 37: (Present) Close up on man's eyes scanning the news
Shots 37-40: (Present) Close ups on him stirring his tea, buttering his toast
Shot 41: (Present) Medium close up as he picks up his newspaper
Shot 42: (Present) Close up on his eyes reading his newspaper and the shock that registers when he reads about the fatal crash
Shot 43: (Present) Close up & photographs of the newspaper article
Shot 44: (Present) Medium close up on the man looking shocked
Title