28 days later

This shot is used to show that the end of the world is coming, because the fact that a motorway in England is not busy and only has one car on it is ridicules and wont happen, unless a disaster has happened.

London is one of the busiest places in the world and the picture above shows that there isnt a person insight.

The city centre is desserted and there is an abandoned car, once again showing something isnt right.

Waking up scene- The Matrix

Focusing on the waking up scene of our thriller i began by using youtube to explore many different variations and typed in 'films containing waking up scenes' which gave some examples and one which also portrays the ideas of isolation and loneliness.

i like how the director has chosen to play the background music and has the character asleep with headphones because it suggested to the audience that, the music which is playing is the music the character is listening to through the ear phones of the sleeping character and this makes the character unaware of what is happening because he is asleep and this is ironic because the audience can see the screen changing. Also the fact that he is listening to music shows that he is no longer concentrating and that he is asleep and distracted by the music he is listening to

I also like the different angles which expose the character waking up and the long screen time of the character blinking shows that he has just woken up and makes it more realistic, i would like to incorporate this amount of editing and concentration on the waking up scene because i feel it is important to capture the emotions and reactions of the person waking up.

I am legend

The opening scene of 'i am legend' begins with an over the shoulder shot which suggests to the audience who the main character is and who they should be following, the over the shoulder shot is also used by the director because it creates the sense that the main character is hiding from someone or something and this is an idea which my group would like to portray in our opening thriller sequence.

The directors use of the establishing shot is used to show the audience audience how empty and... the city is and heightens the idea of lonliness and isolation. The birds eye view shot shown above again shows how deserted the city is because of a end of the world desarster.


The fact that he responses to his alarm on his clock suggests that he is hiding from something or the end of the world?

I like this font for the title because the use of capital letters highlights how bold and brave the character is to being the only person left and this also connects with my groups idea of the man in the tent.
Also the face that the letters are presented in a 3D effect it suggests that this man is different and should be respected.

Second story board for thriller

Plot narrative

The thriller opens with different angled shots of the string from the trap and then the credits appear parallel to the string. A bell from a part of the trap is moving slowly which makes the man stir and wake up. The sound of the bell is misjudging and the man thinks nothing of the sound and goes back to sleep. The sound of the bells returns but louder causing the man to wake up and the fact that he dismissed the first sound of the bells makes the character feel guilt and anger. The man then leaves the tent and looks around for where the heightened sound is coming from and the sound is increasing and then he gets his axe, holds onto the string which is moving lots and follows his hands along until he knows the exact point where the sound is coming from, which is the string between the doors, he looks up and slowly moves towards the door, and when he gets to the door there is a massive banging noise which then goes silent and a massive bang noise occurs behind the door and then the screen goes black.

Thriller props

Thriller props

For props we need items and other things to make the inside of our setting look like there has been sort of apocalypse these may include:

- Big boxes of simple and cheap food like soup.
-Messy empty boxes- no idea of cleanness
-Messy toiletries.
-Clothes.
-Debri - shows he has been there for years

We also need props to develop the character of our character and things he does such as the trap, for this we need:
-Axe (rusty axe to make the impresion that the man has been hiding out for years)
-White/Blue contact lense.
-Tent.
-Strings. (light brown string- shows that it is a man made trap)
-Bell. small bells
-Cans. (squished cans shows he is messy and if there a lots on the floor again shows he has been there for a while.
-mini flood light

Clothes for the man actor
-Dark coloured trackies (navy blue)
-Grey hoodie with hood
-Big black leather boots

this light might be used to create a early morning effect because the hall we have chosen has limiting light and we would have to have added light to make the shots look more realsistic in the morning.

Setting

We have decided the location of our thriller shoot to be in ewhurst place, a boarding house which consists of a reasonably sized hallway with a big door.

We were inspired to use a hallway because it is not an ordinary place for a tent to be and allows the end of the world idea to be expressed.

When we were looking for an ideal setting we have to make sure it was sutiable size to be able to fit a tent in and be surrounded with a series of strings. The door also has a very old perspective which conveys the idea that the house old and also links wit the idea that the owner is hiding.

This is the only example so far, however my group and i feel this is a god setting for our thriller to be set in.

Initial props list for opening thriller

Tent- pop up tent (small)
String
Tea cup/kettle/milk - tea making stuff

• The man is sleeping in the tent with a large duvet over him
• There is sounds of him sleeping and there is an axe next to where he is sleeping, suggesting that he is hunting something.
• He wakes up normally, stretches and looks around.
• He then hears a sound which is coming from the trap he has set outside and he throws off the duvet
• The man unzips the tent to view the trap he has set out
• Shot of the trap consisting of all the strings and one of them vibrating signalling there is something there
• Shot from outside the tent, his shadow being shown and we can see him picking up the axe
• He unzips the tent, close up of the tent zip
• As he stands up with the axe in his hand there will be a close up of his face showing facial scars and an odd eye (different colour) indicating he has been attacked by something
• He slowly approaches the door the bang from the door getting louder
• Close up of the mans face showing fear as he walks towards to the door
• Long shot of him walking towards the door
• Over the shoulder shot

First story board of thriller

The idea

Our idea so far...

• Sound occurs and sturs the character who is asleep in the tent.
• explores around the his tent and each differnt pods/sections they are set up as differnt rooms like an office, kitchen etc
• pictures of the person he is hiding from or hunting stuck on the inside of the tent (black and white).
• then unzip the tent and see that you are in a massive hallway
• lots of strings everywhere more pictures on the floor.
• floow a string that is moving and it is between a big get of front doors and open the door slowly and then finish.

We discussed the main details of the main chacacter:

• wearing convict suit
• one eye differnt colour
• beard
• axe
• middle aged

Possible ideas for what happens when the man opens the tent entrance;

• could wake up inside a living room or an office
• you could be on a beach
• in the middle on a forest or a field
• an island in the middle of a lake or the sea
• on a hard shoulder of the motorway or in the middle of the motorway
• in the middle of a film, or tv studio

The First pitching of our ideas:

The First pitching of our ideas:

During our lesson we had a discussion about two main ideas and discussed the ideas, by drawing out the positives and highlighting the negatives.

Idea 1 – D of E

Start inside the tent, point of view shot, teacher drugged so the vision blurry. Vandalised shot of the campsite. Running into the forest. Stumbling and vision slightly blurred. Handheld camera. Flash back of the children happy around the campfire, this contrasts with the feelings the teacher is experiencing; scared and anxious. Blurred shot of the lake and then focus on dead kids floating. Close up reaction shot of the teachers expressions. Pan shot and sees a person hanging in the corner.

 This was our strongest idea, Matt and Adam the media teachers and we all decided that our theme would come under the title as abandonment. Both Matt and Adam divided the ideas into two groups the ideas which were workable and the ideas which weren’t.  Firstly, we all agreed on the idea opening with the tent as a great start to an opening thriller because it allows anything to follow, you could go to sleep in a tent in the forest, but wake up in a living room. Also the drugged teacher with the blurred in focused shots we agreed would be affective. Secondly we discussed the ideas which were pointed out to us by the media teachers as being hard to do. The idea with the floating bodies in the lake, would not be appropriate and would be hard to film because the filming would take place in February, which means the weather conditions may not be suitable for people to be in a lake. We also discussed the fact that we need more thought on the ending of the scene.

Idea 2 – baby sitter

Starts with a toddler/young girl sitting at the kitchen table playing with paint and finger painting, while teenage baby sitter watching TV. Then a power cut happens (blackout ) and the tv fusses out/ babysitter goes up stairs to sort out the electricity and tells the girl to stay down stairs. Still the screen is blacked out and shot of the kitchen table is shown when electricity is on but the girl is no longer there. There are finger prints and smudges on the wall which is being followed with a torch light from the baby sitter and the hand prints lead the teenager to the bathroom and she looks in the mirror  and sees the child’s reflection in the mirror with a messed up place.

Adam and Matt liked the ideas of the fingerprints on the walls following the playing with the paint at the beginning. However, we discussed the idea of the girls face as a reflection in the mirror as being a not so strong idea and cliché.

During the end of the meeting we talked about thinking of some more ideas, but with the beginning on the scene starting with the tent.

My first initial 4 opening scene ideas for a thriller

1. There is a funeral which is set in a graveyard (with several graves) there would be a flash back of what has happened, tragic accident of somebody drowning in a swimming pool. The flash back involves a party which has gone wrong, intruders? The funeral would fade into a black-out and then the party scene which goes completely wrong. By using the flashbacks it creates a disjointed feel.
2. or another angle involving the drowning idea is: the opening scene could start with someone floating in the swimming pool and slowly bring the lights up to reveal a body in the swimming pool and then fade out. Then a cose up of some part of the body and the second part would be a flash back of the party and then continue to follow the story and then end with the body flating in the swimming pool.
3. Duiga board. The board with the alphabet and yes and no stages with a glass in the middle, surrounded with a group of people in a room. The spirits would move the glass. Flash back? The lighting would be dim and a male character would mess around moving the glass and the scared girls would be saying 'stop moving it, stop moving it' and then the boy goes 'im not, its moving on its own.'
4. Family/friends watching the TV and a power cut occur. People being tortured, the scream could be flashing and then screen is focused on the suspect being tortured. Foot prints going up the stairs. Blood on the walls? errie feel. People outside trying to break in, the people in side being held as hostage. The telephone wire been cut so they cant phone for help.
5.  

Opening sequence analysis

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Information

·         Columbia pictures and metro-goldwyn-mayer pictures

·         A scott Rudin – yellow bird production

·         A david Fincher film

Actors

·         Daniel Craig

·         Chrstopher Plumer

·         Stellan

·         Skarsgard

·         Steven Berkotlf

·         GeraldDine James

Production Designer Donald Graham burt

Production by Scott Rudin, Ote Sonderg, Soren Starmose and Cean Charffin

Action

-There is close up on textures at the beginning, which soon becomes clear that the close up of is of dragon scales.

- The screen flashes which creates tension and the scene is fast moving,  atmospheric and leaves you wanting  more and intrigued

- The audience is given the idea that the liquid is black ink, this idea is brought to us by the fact that the word ‘tattoo’ is in the title of the film.

- The word tattoo in the title creates rhetorical questions for the audience.

-The main colour which consists throughout this opening scene is black and this suggests death. Some examples are; Ripples of black ink, black leather and black armour.

-The excessive use of ink portrays the idea that is it out of control.

-The information is written on a black background makes it stand out

- At the end there is a section of fire, dragons and wings, which again connect with the title ‘The Girl with the Dragon tattoo.’

Inception

Information

·         Warner Bros pictures

·         A Time Warner company

·         Legendary pictures

·         Syncopy

·         A Christopher Nolan film and directed

·         Production design guy Hundrix Dyas

Actors

·         Leonardo Dicaprio

·         Joseph Gordon-Levitt

·         Ellen page

·         Cillian Murry

·         Marion Cotillard

Action

-The font of the writing is displayed in a maze/puzzle form. This connects with the movies message of different levels of dreams there also zoomed in sections of the letter which allow the audience to see the letters are in a maze font.

-There is blurred and smudged imagery of the letters which suggests moving into the other worlds.

-There is white writing on black which makes it interesting and stands and this draws you eyes to the actors names.

-In the background there are faded and hazy scenes from the film which sets the scene and this also   reminds the audience of faded dreams and partially remembered dreams.

Mission Impossible - Ghoast Protocal

Information

Paramount pictures are skydance productions

• Tome cruise
• 
  
• Bad Robot
• 
  
• A Brad Bird film
• 
  
• Simon peg
• 
  
• Paula patton
• 
  
• Michael nyquist
• 
  
• Vladimir mastikov

Action

The opening scene consists of a traveling spark on a wire which  ends with an explosion. The dynamite ignition chord moves through a large selection of scenes from the movie and gives the captive audience a taste of the fast moving, dynamic action which will be found within the film.

 There is the uses of computer generated images, which creates an action feel; for example when the missile turns into the bullet inside tom cruises gun; this creates a very graphic shot.

Throughout the scene the audience follows the spark, this conveys the feeling of moving through time and this is created by all the scenes rushing towards the audience.

Sound Analysis Kill Bill vol 1, Scene- Beatrix Buried

The clip starts with solemn music which suggests revenge, also the background music portrays the ideas of cowboys and sets the scene as a western style as the characters are presented in a western style with cowboy hats and cowboy boots.

The sound of the nails being hammered into the wooden coffin is loud and exaggerates the fact that she cant get out and how she is locked in. The sound of the wood being punchered into the coffin suggests the idea that it is impossible to get and also creates the ideas that she is going to suffer and die in the wooden coffin

The repetition of the nails being hammered into the boxes portrays the thoughts of her being trapped, it also heightens the fact that she is trapped because it exaggerates the eco of the hammering which gives the effect that the audience is also trapped.

There is a muffled sound of debree being focused on. The muffled effect allows the audience to experience what the same as the character in the scene, this allows the audience to feel and connect with the characters emotions. Furthermore, the close up shot shown on the left allows the character to be aware of the emotions the character is experiencing  

The sound of the trapped character struggling is then followed with a silence and then followed by a louder final blow of mud and debree; the fact that the screen is pitched black while this is happening allows the audience to focus on the sounds and this portrays how terrified the woman. The scream for help is heightened with the fact that this screen is pitch black because the audience isn’t expecting it. Also by using a black out shot it presents what the character is seeing and the audience can connect emotionally with the character

The ending part of this scene involves the sound of laughter from outside of the coffin. This allows the audience to feel sympathy for the woman trapped. There is also creaking of wood which suggests pain and suffering.

                                  

                                  

Semiotics

Semiotics- The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation

The cultural circuit

Semiotics examines how symbolic, written and technical signs construct meaning.

The Signifier – The sign/symbol: word, colour or image (ie colour blue)

The Signified – The concept/ meaning, associations that the sign refers to blue is often associated with sadness or the sea.

Another example would be a kitchen knife- a kitchen knife represents cooking, however in the society we live in people think of death, stabbing and slasher movies when a kitchen knife is mentioned.

What is a Thriller?

Definition of a Thriller
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Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense, tension and  excitement as the main elements. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods giving them a high level of  anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and/or terror. Thriller films tend to be adrenaline-rushing, gritty, rousing and fast-paced.

Prelim task

Video: prelim

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Prelim editing write up

When editing the prelim task we followed the story board given to us, which showed different angles of a conversation.

During the editing we had to follow a sequence which made the conversation make sense because we took many different shots in different angles we had to chose the right sections by using the buttons 'i' and 'o' to crop the section we needed, we did this in final cut programe. When we shot the different shots we shot some extra shots such as a close up of the girl picking up the rubix cube.

Prelim task: storyboard

At the beginning of our thriller shoot we were given the rubix cube to incorporate and use during the filming for our prelim and we were also given a story board to use which labelled the main shots we were to include, but we were also allowed to do extra shots which we felt would improve our prelim.

Analysis Presentation

Camera Lesson 2 - learning how to flim

During this lesson, we implied our knowledge of setting up the Sony nx5 camera and incorporated our knowledge on the different shots we learned during our 3 classroom session, this included doing a wide shot which captivated and allowed the scene to be set, big close up which is usually used to show emotion and a point of view shot which provides the audience with the perspective from a particular characters point of view.

Before taking the shots the media technician explained the proceedures which took place before starting the shots and we implied this too our work. Everyone on the set said 'standby' which tells the producer that they are ready, then the deputy director says turning the camera over and rolling, which tells everyone the shot is about to start and then the dirctor sayd 'action' starting the filming has started.

While practicng filming our sequence of shots we leanred that between tolling the camera over and action the camera person had to leave a gap of just the wiode shot with no character, this is so that the shots can be cut together ans smoothly without the differnt shots stopping and starting again. We also practiced angling the camera to give a differnt effect; this includes lower the camera.

Camera Lesson with Adam- Different shots

Camera Lesson with Adam- Differnt shots

During this lesson we were introduced to the different types of camera shots used during a scene.

There are 12 shot sizes which we learnt:

• Big close-up (BCU)
• Mid shot
• Wide shot
• Point of view
• Close up shot
• Medium shot
• Over the shoulder shot
• High angle
• Medium close-up
• Long shot
• Two shot, three shot
• Low angle

We focused on some of the main shots in detail:

Wide shot

This can also be called the establishing shot. This can be used to establish the location, set the scene and atmosphere. The wide shot is often used at the beginning and the end of the scene.

Big close up shot

This shot mainly focuses on the head or part of the head and used to show emotion and detail.

Over the shoulder shot

The shot allows the audience to see what the character is seeing. This shot is often used to suggest someone is being flowed or watched by an unseen person.

Long shot

This contains a shot of the full figure in their location. This shot can often be used to distance the audience from events or suggest loneliness or isolation.

During the lesson we were given the example to examine called ‘Pleasantville’. Throughout this scene there are many different examples of different shots. At the beginning there is a wide shot which shows the location and allows the audience to see that Pleasantville is set in an American high school environment. Then there are two mid shots edited together with the boys head slightly on the right and the first head slightly on the left. This creates a conversation taking place. The choice of cleaver camera shots creates a conversation, which isn’t really taking place. At the end of the scene we watched there is a wide shot used to show the boys isolation.

Camera Lesson 1 - Learning the basics

During our first camera lesson we learnt how to set up low grade proffesional sony nx5 camera.

Fristly we learnt how to set out the tripod; by spreading its legs, locking the differnt parts of the tripod together, atatching the handle and holding a black button down and sliding the camera on. To make sure the camera is straight we bubbled the camera, which is by making the bubble  centrual in the middle of a lime green circle. Then we were given the battery and were told how to incert the battery insuring that a 'click' sound was made.

Then we were instructed to turn the sony nx5 camera on, by pressing the red button and turning it left.
Matt the media technician then explained and showed me how to white balance; this made sure that the picture being filmed was the correct colour and stopped the skin colour appearing orangey. By showing the camera the colour white, the camera is then able to gadge other colors.

We were also taught how to increase and decrease the zoom and how to focus the shot.We zoomed in and then focused and then zoomed out, which allowed a clearer picture and shot.

We were also told some information about the camera and about the numbers which come up on the scream when you start filming. The time code shows the camera perosn how long long you have been filming for, that the original amount of pixials should be 50 if any higher would make the camera a
have a smudgy effect.