Lighting for our Main Task

Lighting is an essential part of films especially in the Thriller genre as the darkness of a scene can emphasise the mystery or danger surrounding a particular character. An example is in a murder scene the killer's identity might be hidden due to lack of light and we only see his/her shadow or outline in the darkness.

We have three different scenes and we need to make sure we choose the appropriate amount of lighting.

Nathan in room 
- Midday
- Quite gloomy, not very bright 
- Just sunlight coming in through the windows of his bedroom.

Nathaniel on laptop 
- A dark room , not much is visible
 - Possibly just a lamp is on
- Brightness on Laptop is bright to emphasise what is on the screen.


3 Henchmen walking 
- Evening time outiside
- Depends on where we film and how many streetlights there are, not many we hope
- Quite dark to show the danger and mystery behind these men.

Animatic of Our Thriller Opening (Main Task)

This is a real time animatic of our opening two minutes of our Main Task. We have used all our titles and different shots of film.

Costumes for our Main Task

3 Agency Henchmen
We want these 3 men to look suspicious and they have to be clothed almost identically in order to show that they are doing the same job and are together. We need smart suits for our 3 men as they are secret agents sent on a mission and Thriller films typically portray them in smart suits because they are doing their work under strict orders. It adds professionalism to the character and this is what we want to show. We have decided that they need to wear a Dark Black/Grey Suit, Black Tie and Black smart Shoes.

 Here we see in Reservoir Dogs these men are portrayed as extremely serious and we can clearly see that they have a job to do. We know they are accomplices as they are wearing identical clothing.

Nathaniel 
Nathaniel is our main character and works for a top secret government agency. He is currently a rogue agent in our opening and is hiding undercover so we need to portray this correctly . Therefore he won't be wearing a smart suit or anything too casual. We decided that for Nathaniel he needs to wear a Dark Polo Shirt , Dark Jeans and Dark Trainers.

Here we see James Bond in Casino Royale is wearing dark casual clothes, in this particular scene he is undercover doing a job. We can see there is an element of seriousness in what he is doing and that he is particularly dangerous.


Nathan
Nathan is only 7 years old and lives in an orphanage therefore he needs to wear quite cheap , dirty clothes in order to portray this. We have decided that Nathan needs to wear a Casual dark shirt, casual trousers and he will be barefooted with Dark socks.

Serial Number Tattoos
Both Nathaniel and Nathan have tattoos on their wrists to show the link between the two characters and add mystery to the plot. We have decided that the wrist is the perfect place to have it and we have decided that a Serial Number would be suitable as it also adds more mystery as to what it means.

Here we see in Hitman the Agent has a barcode tattooed to the back of his head. This shows that he is part of something so serious and that he is attached to it. It also suggests that he is merely a product just designed to do jobs and this is what we want to portray in Nathaniel.

Lighting in our Thriller Opening

In our Thriller Opening we have three different locations that will all need different lighting.

The Bedroom
When the boy is in the bedroom it will be a dimly lit dull coloured room. This will help imply poorness as the generall idea of a childs bedroom is colourful and bright. His room will be the opposite of this. Similar to this picture;









Nathaniels room
This will be darker than Nathans bedroom because it will help show that he is in hiding. So, it will be a room with no lights. The only source of light will be from a window. The light will be like the picture on the left.

Men walking outside

The men will be either walking outside in the evening so it will only just be starting to get dark, or they will be walking through the streets during the day. So, the type of lighting will be one of the two pictures on the right of the page.

Locations for our Main Task

Location is important in Thriller films as it can tell the audience what sort of Thriller it is, for example a Police station tells the audience it is a Crime/Thriller. We have 3 scenarios in our Main task opening which means we have to carefully choose 3 different locations in order to fit the genre of Spy/Thriller.

3 Henchmen walking
A quiet side street or alleyway , possibly run down and abandoned. Because Nathan lives in an orphanage it is not going to be the nicest of places and built up per se.

- We could possibly films this in Stansted which might add to the ambience of the setting.


Nathan drawing
A small dark bedroom with not a lot of furniture or possessions. He lives in an orphanage therefore it is not going to be very elegant.

- We might be able to ask Pat who featured in our Preliminary Task to use his bedroom as the set for this scene as it is the sort of thing we are looking for. We may need to rearrange some stuff though!


Nathaniel on Laptop
A study/office sort of room, quite small and personal.

We have not decided yet where we are going to find a room perfect for this scene but we do have ideas in mind.

Costume in our Thriller Opening

Their will be five characters in our opening and the costumes that hey will be wearing are;

The Three men
The three men that will be walking through the alleyway/ street will all be wearing all black suits

 The idea is similar to what the main character wears in the film Hitman as it makes them look professional and as though they are important.













Nathan(the Boy)

Casual, modern clothes. However they will not look very expensive looking because he is a boy that is in an orphanage so to keep him looking like that his clothes need to portray this. the sort of look that we are going for is like in the film Harry Potter and the Philosipher's Stone.







Nathaniel Fields(the Man)

Black t-shirt with jeans. This idea is inspired by the film James Bond: Casino Royale where the character is wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. It should create the image of the man as being a rougue agent which is the style that we are going for.

Locations in our Thriller Introduction

Their will be three different locations in our Thriller Opening. We will need a bedroom, a small room with a desk and a laptop and a street/ alleyway.

- Pats bedroom
-Possibly Mr Berry's closet thing.
-Alleyway in Stansted Mountfichet.

Props we will need for our Introduction to a Thriller

In our thriller introduction we will need pros for three different people and locations. Below are the three lists that we will need for each cut.


Boy
-Crayon
-Colouring Book
-Bed
-Desk
-Chest of Drawers
-Chair
As the boy is an orphan he will be living in a fairly basic environment. As we are going to be filming a scene in his bedroom we will need to show that he doesn't have as many luxeries as most children. Therefore he will only have basic items in his room and rather than things like Playstations and TV's, he will have a colouring book. Similar to the room of the left: a dull colour with basic objects.


Man
-Laptop

-Gun
-Dossier of boy
-Desk
-Chair
The gun we will use will look similar to this. It will be next to a laptop and also in this scene you eill see a dossier of the boy which looks similar to the one below;













Three Men
-Briefcase
-Money

-Dossier
the breifcase that we will use will look similar to the one on the right. it will contain a dossier of the boy and it will also contain money. This will imply that the boy is a target and there will be payment if he's found. The breifcase will help show the importance of the men as it generally displays something business like.

Props for our Main Task

For our main task we have to think carefully about our Mis-En-Scene for our opening two minutes. Props are essential for films especially in Thriller films as it  can set the scene, mood or intensity.  We have 3 different scenarios in the opening of our Thriller film and based on our research and plot, these are the props we have decided as a group to use for each of the characters :

Nathan
- Crayons
- Colouring book
- Bed
- Desk
- Chair


Nathaniel 

 -  Laptop
 - Smartphone - Blackberry
 - C.Ds
 - Hard Drive
 - USB memory stick
 - Dossier of boy

 - Gun
 - Spare papers
- Earpiece
 - Binoculars

 Three henchmen
- Briefcase

- Money
- Dossier of boy

Group Meeting : Our Movie

Alec and Tobie got together to talk about our whole Thriller movie , the characters , plot and setting. We have learnt a lot about Narrative in class and we have used this to create our movie. We have created a Prezi to present our movie.

Our Thriller Movie on Prezi

Examples of Narrative in Thriller Films

WARNING THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS!

The Dark Knight

Binary opposition : Batman is the protagonist whilst The Joker is the antagonist. However this is played around a bit with the character of Harvey Dent who is good at the start but then turns bad with TwoFace. At the end of the movie to preserve Harvey Dent's reputation in Gotham City, Batman is used as the villain. This is teased in the title with The Dark Knight which displays the more darker and sinister Batman.

Open or Close : There were certain scenes in this movie which kept the audience guessing. The opening is a good example as we don't know which one is the Joker as many villains are seen killing each other but then The Joker is the last one left in the bank which introduces him to the audience. 

Also another scene is when there are two boats which are rigged with explosives, one is filled with Civilians and the other Prisoners. They each have a control to blow the other boat. This scene is really nailbiting as it could go either way and keeps the audience guessing.

Enigma Code : There are not many questions in this movie which are left answered until the end. However there are some revealing scenes like the scene in the hospital where Harvey Dent's burnt side of his face is revealed after a camera technique is employed only showing his good side.

Location : The movie skips between countries throughout the movie, most of it takes place in the fictional city of Gotham City but it does go to places like Hong Kong.

Time : The movie stays in chronological order and there are no flashforwards or flashbacks.

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

By completing our preliminary task I have realized that we have made some mistakes and our prelim needs some improvements for example at 0:34 we had some sound issues. At  0:36 to 0:37 sound overlapped and  was not matched properly we have improve on these things by editing more cleanly and having more clips if we had more clips then we could of chose a more appropriate one by doing this we could minimize mistakes.

Things that we did well were the matched cut at 0:07- 0:08 as it was matched cleanly which made it look professional. The timing of the shots in general was good. We also executed some editing techniques well such as a fade at 0:52 and a dissolve at 0:02-0:03

Overall I think we did quite a good job and I learned alot from doing the preliminary task. From doing this task we can learn not to make the same mistakes again.

Our Preliminary Task

Narrative in Thriller films

Today in Media we practiced using jellybaby sweets to set out different scenes and shots of different Thriller narrative perspectives. The important things we have learnt that are important of setting  a Thriller narrative are :

Binary opposition : Protagonist/Antagonist or Male/Female , opposites are normally used in Thrillers. This can be mixed up sometimes by having a good guy turn out to be the bad guy.

Open or Close : Thriller films tend to follow an Open narrative which keeps the audience guessing.

Enigma Code : Where the audience asks questions which aren't answered until later.

Location : This is important in Thrillers as it can hint towards different possible plots. For example a

Time : Some Thriller films can use Flashbacks , Flashforwards , dream sequences etc. to confuse the audience and keep them guessing. We have decided as a group that Flashforwards are too complicated and Flashbacks are more appropriate.

 Jellybaby Narrative :

This shot shows the main character alone in a woods. This is typical as it is mysterious and keeps the audience guessing where he is or why he is there.

 

This next scene shows a crime scene with the investigators surrounding an impaled dead body. This establishing shot sets the mood and tells the audience it's a Crime/Thriller

 

One key part of a crime scene is when the main guy finds some evidence which changes opinions on who is the murderer.

 

This shot is a close up of the main characters face. We normally get close up on facial expressions in Thriller films. As we can see in the picture the guy is disturbed by what he has found.

 

After realising who the killer is, a chase scene erupts. We thought that action is a typical Thriller feature and mostly the baddies are chasing the good guys as we can see here.

 

Sometimes in Thrillers extreme methods and stunts are used as we can see the character parachuting out of helicopter. This adds to the tension and danger of the movie.

 

In every Thriller film there is a stand off between a Protagonist and Antagonist. It is normally in this scene when the villain is revealed. Also it is in extreme situations as we can see here elevated on a skyscraper.

 

Danger is a typical Thriller feature used to keep the audience on edge, as we can see here the two main characters have fought and fallen off the building.

 

Gore and violence can sometimes be a typical Thriller movie. Here we see the Antagonist killed in extreme circumstances.

 

Since crime is a big feature of Thrillers, a trip down to the station for the villains is normal. Here we see the co-conspirators of the murder being identified.

 

A sense of heroism and accomplishment is typical for the Protagonist in Thriller movies. Here we see the police investigator getting an award for his services. However not all ends well.....

Evaluation of our Preliminary Task- Editing

In the preliminary task we need to edit a clip that we filmed using Final Cut Express. We needed to show that we could do the 180 degree rule and a matched cut.

180 degree rule
Using Final Cut Express we did encounter a few problems when putting together the 180 degree rule. This is because the two characters diologue overlapped eachother and it was difficult to edit it smoothly with the sound. However, on the whole it was successful but with some minor mistakes with the editing.

Matched Cut
When using Final Cut Express we found it easy to make the Matched Cut and we had a rather smooth take. The difficulty was to make sure we made it look smooth. Therefore we had to get the timings perfectly and I think we did very well in this aspect. 
Other Editing Techniques Used

Whilst editing we thought it would be a good idea to try out some different editing techniques. We added a disolve technique near the beginning when we were struggling to make the cut look smooth. Aswell as this, we added a fade to end the scene to great effect.

Evaluation of our Preliminary Task- Camera

As a group we needed to film a short clip demonstrating our camera and editing skills. We needed to show that we are able to display a mathched cut and the 180 degree rule in our short clip. We also needed to put it all together using the Final Cut Express software.

The 180 degree rule
After deciding what we would do, we needed to film our short clip a number of times from two different angles to display the fact that we can use the 180 degree rule. As there was only the two of us in the scene, we had to film the whole performance through once from behind one person and then again from the opposite direction


The two pictures show the two different camera angles we used for the 180 degree rule.















The Matched Cut
When filming the matched cut in our piece we needed to film somebody walking through a door from two seperate angle. One of the angles is from outside the room the man was entering and the other camera angle was inside the room. We needed to match them together using Final Cut Express after filming to make it fluent.

The two picture show the two different camera angles we used for our match cut.

Evaluation of our Preliminary Task

Overall I think our Preliminary Task went really well and we worked together as a group.We planned our task extremely well and worked together as a group to write the script , plan the scenes and shots. Because we had to include a Match Cut and stick to the 180 Degree rule of filming we made sure that we all knew what these were and practised filming them and editing accordingly. I think we did well in getting Max and Pat to act in our task as they did a great job of  it. However our task was not perfect and there were some issues that we had along the line.

One problem we had with editing was the sound and dialogue of  our clips. Some of the dialogue in our video overlaps one another whilst switching different camera angles. This is a simple error that we can resolve with more practice with editing in Final Cut Express and by watching more tutorials. Another problem with the sound is that whilst filming the conversation between the two characters was too fast as they were involved in Stichomythic exchange and perhaps we could have slowed the dialogue down whilst filming. This is not the actors fault and as they were not clear how fast they should talk. By having speech overlapping each other it makes it a nightmare to edit and we can fix this when we come to our Main task if we include dialogue.

Despite all of these problems, I think our location was good, our filming was good and our editing of the video clips was good. This preliminary task has shown us what we need to do in order to make our main task perfect.

Screenplay of our Main Task

1. Close up of Boy drawing on paper 
2. Establishing shot of bedroom 
3. Close Up of mens feet walking
4. Backs of men walking 
5. Close up of boys face 
6. Establishing shot of man watching the three men approach a house
   
7. Close up of him opening laptop with papers - close up on tattoo
   
8. Boy walks to window
9. Boy looks out window
10. Close up of
    
11. Outside shot of boy near window 
12. Man looking through binoculars
    
13. Men enter house
14. Close up of door handle 
15. Match cut - of men entering 
16. Pan of them walking up stairs
    
17. Boy drawing in room
18. Boy disappears - Empty room
19. Close up of boy's picture 
20. Close up of boy's arm - tattoo

We have three scenarios in our opening sequence
1. A boy in his room drawing
2. 3 men walking down a road and approaching a house
3. A man nearby watching these men

Order of our Main Task

1. ZEUS PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
2. OSBORN/MCLOUGHLIN ENTERPRISES 
3. BASED ON A NOVEL BY MAX JACKLIN 
4. TIM FLOWERS 
5. PATRICK FUSI 
6. "A State Of Mind" - title
7. PETER RANSBOTTOM 
8. WAYNE KING
9. TOM SMITH, RICHARD DUNNE , JENNIFER THOMPSON
10. CASTING BY BOB FRANKLIN
11. MUSIC BY TOBIAS OSBORN 
12. COSTUME DESIGNER STACY JOHANSSON
13. PRODUCTION DESIGNER AUGUSTUS FILCH
14. CO-EDITORS JACKLIN AND OSBORNE 
15. EDITED BY ALEC MCLOUGHLIN
16. WRITTEN BY MAX JACKLIN
17. CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS TOBIE OSBORN AND MAX JACKLIN 
18. PRODUCED BY ALEC MCLOUGHLIN
19. DIRECTED BY ALEC MCLOUGHLIN

These are the titles we will use in our opening title sequence. We will sort our the names of our crew and cast later . Also we have to sort out the font for the titles and the layout.

AS Media Studies - Preliminary Task

This is our Preliminary Task that we have filmed to show that we can use a Match Cut in editing and stick to the 180 Degree Rule whilst filming. This film was edited in Final Cut Express which also shows that we know how to edit films using this software.

Results of Thriller Questionnaire

To gather more audience research into Thriller movies we created an online questionnaire which we posted on our blog and Facebook. So far we have had 17 responses to our survey and this is useful as it gives us an insight into what we need to do when making our Thriller opening.

 This question tells us how old our respondents are which is useful as we have a target audience of 18-29. The most popular responses are 18 and under and 17-21. We know that their responses will be useful to our research.

This question is useful as it shows how committed the respondee is to watching Thriller films. The most popular response was Inception with 5 replies. This shows that they like pyschological thrillers and gripping stories. There were also some repsonses which are not Thrillers such as Saw which can be classified as strictly Horror. 

This question tells us what we need to include in our Thriller movie. The answers to this question are pretty balanced which tells us that we can use most of these features in our Thriller.

This question shows us which movies are most popular with our audience. The Dark Knight got the most votes which shows us that our audience likes Crime/Psychological type Thrillers. We can use this information whilst writing the story for our Thriller and include crime or mysterious elements.

This question is useful to our group as it eliminates certain aspects from our Thriller movie. One of the most popular responses was "Too much gore and blood" . This tells us that we should not include any violent scenes in our Thriller. Another ascpect was the story, people did not like it being over the top and wish it focused more on story not action. This tells us that we need to perfect our story and not include too many action scenes.

This question tells us what we need to include out of the 4 factors we have been analysing in class. The responses to this question are balanced again with Character and Costume ahead by one response. This tells us we need to create believable characters and dress them appropriately.

This feedback shows us that  good story and action scenes are what people are most expectant to see in our Thriller film. From this we can see that we need to stick to the typical elements of a Thriller film and not border off into unknown territory.

This question tells us what Film History our respondees have seen and particularly like. There are a variety of Thrillers that they have mentioned ranging from Inception to The Godfather. This tells us that we can appeal to many sub-genres of Thriller and hit our target audience.


In conclusion our questionnaire has been very useful for our research. We know what factors of Thrillers we need to include and things to stay away from when creating it. All in all we are thankful for these responses.

Conclusion of Audience Research

As an individual I have researched into various Thriller films gathering the Audience Feedback individual films.

Paranormal Activity 
Inception, Inception 
The Dark Knight 
Godfather 
Silence of The Lambs 
The Departed

The results from user reviews generally agree that Males Aged 18-29 are the target audience, this generation are more likely to watch and like our Thriller and we have to hit this audience. Because we are a small independent movie production company we can target this audience as a niche audience, we don't need to hit the mass audience.
User reviews for these films state that the best parts of Thriller movies are a good gripping storyline, a mysterious element to the plot and good use of musical score and editing. Editing is particularly important in Thriller movies we have seen from reviews , techniques such as close ups , shot composition and lighting etc are all essential to Thriller movies I have seen. We have to make sure that we use these techniques in our Thriller opening in order to hit our target audience.

Audience on a low budget Thriller film - Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity is a Horror/Thriller film that was released in 2007. The film is estimated to be the most profitable of all time and was originally meant to be targeted at a niche audience. But the Director Oren Peli had difficulties in getting his film distributed a the Sundance Film Festival rejected it at first then Dreamworks and Steven Spielberg cut a deal with Peli. They were going to remake the original film at first but then a limited screening showed that it was popular.

Box Office
Budget:
$11,000 (estimated)
Opening Weekend:
$77,873 (USA) (12 Screens)
Gross:
$107,917,283 (USA)

Audience feedback 

As we can see from this graph taken from IMDB, the main audience was Males Aged 18-29. The reviews border an average 6.7 score which is a mediocre rating for the movie. The younger generation rated it higher while the older generation voted it lower. This is probably due to the gripping and intense nature of the film, it appeals to teens but does not appeal to older adults who may find the movie too scary or shocking.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film got a "certified fresh" rating of 82% from critics. One critic said it was " frightening, freaky and terrifying" whilst another critic slammed the movie and said it was " extremely unthrilling,  obvious , cliched and we've seen it all before."

Evaluation
From this information I can see again that the main audience was Males 18-29 and this is what we need to aim for as a group when making our Thriller. Paranormal Activity was regarded as very gripping, mysterious and intensifying . We know that when we plan our storyline that we have to make it thrilling for an audience and keep them on the edge, we can't make it too obvious either and can use many techniques to add to the intensity. This movie was filmed using Handheld cameras and we can use this technique and will have to as we are a low budget , independent film company.

Prezi Presentation on Great Thriller Directors

I made a short presentation on a few of the most famous directors of Thrillers. I did this as background research into the Thriller Genre and why they are so successful. I got my information from IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Wikipedia.

Directors of Thrillers on Prezi

Group Zeus - Prezi Account

Today I created a Prezi account for our Group, it is a useful tool for us to to create online presentations and then post them easily on our blog. We can create many easy to read presentations on research, planning and ideas we have for our coursework over the course of our year.

http://prezi.com/your/

Mise en scene techniques used in Thriller films

Thriller films are usually high budget and can therefore afford to have expensive props and settings.

Props

In the film the Da Vinci Code in the poening scene where the man is being chased by a hooded figure, the painings on the wall are focused on and this gives the impression of them watching what's occuring. This is intersting because it makes the audince think that the portraits are watching them too. This is a good idea for a Thriller film.



Setting
The setting of a Thriller film is very important. In the film 'The Usual Suspects' the characters are on a boat which gives the impression of being far away from civilisation. This can be very effective for a Thriller film as it is a spooky setting.

Typical Conventions in Thrillers: Editing

Motivated Cut
A motivated cut is a cut in which a character is looking somewhere where the audience wants to look this cut can be used to create suspense as the audience wants to know what the character is looking at. An Example of this is in Da Vinci Code when the girl is looking at the wall with the photos on by having a shot on her face with her looking at it this makes us want to look at the wall and wonder what is on it.



Cross Cutting
Cross-cutting is an editing technique used to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions. Although this is not always the case. An Example of Cutting is in The Da Vinci Code after the man gets shots it cuts to a room with another man doing a presentation this is supposed to show that they are happening at the same time.

Typical Conventions in Thrillers: Sound

Musical Score
Musical score can be used to set moods for example a Major key usually means that something happy or good is going to happen while a Minor key usually means something sad or bad is going to happen. The Musical Score also can reflect action on screen. An example of this is in Jaws where the music gets louder and faster when the person is getting attacked. Also in the Da Vinci Code there is low slow sustained music when the man is getting chased this shows something bad is going to happen in this case he gets shot it also adds to the suspense and mystery.

Ambient Sound
Means the background sounds which are present in a scene. For example wind, water, birds, crowds, office noises, and traffic.

Typical Conventions in Thrillers: Mes On Scene

Props
Props are essential as they give the audience a visual incite into something such as if someone is in a detective cloak it connotates that the setting is a crime scene or there is a mystery to be solved. An example of this is in Se7en where there is police tape and a dead body this shows the audience that it is a crime scene.

Setting & Lighting
The setting shows alot about the film as does the lighting, Disturbing places are usually Dark while Friendly places are usually light. An Example of this is in the Da Vinci Code where the scene is shot with dark lightning this emphasises the fact that something bad it going to happen and darkness obscures the audiences vision.

Typical Conventions In Thriller Films: Camera

Focus
A camera can be in focus or out of focus, focus can be used to disguise certain things that the audience is not meant to see. Something which is out of focus is usually a key part of the film away which would make the whole mystery obvious to the audience. An Example of this is in Da Vinci Code when the man is getting chased having the camera out of focus to disguise the person chasing him.

Shot Composition and Framing
The way the shots are composed can make hide certain factors of a film for example if someone is killed then the killers face will not be shown to create mystery. An Example of this is in The Usual Suspects where the Killers face is not shown, this adds to the mystery of who he is and what he has to do with the storyline.

Close up
A close up can tell the audience alot about what is being close upped this is because you can see people facial expression so see what their reaction is also it may be used to intentionally show the audience something on an object that was never noticed before. An example of this is in Death Note where there is a close up of the hand writing on the paper and then after there is a scene of someone dying this makes the audience wonder what  the comparison is between the hand writing and the deaths.

Storyboard for our Preliminary Task

This is a storyboard which I drew which outlines the shots,dialogue and angles we are going to film for our Preliminary Task.