Final Thriller Sequence

This is our final sequence after editing, following the feedback given and finishing off. From the previous draft we have added titles, contrast and saturation to the shots to enhance the scenes. Overall we are pleased with our final sequence and we think we met our set targets.

Rough Cut of Thriller Opening

This is a rough cut of our thriller opening sequence.

We have experimented with positioning of titles and would like feedback on which is the most appropriate for our sequence. We have also experimented with video effects on the last four shots and would like feedback on which one looks back. We would also like feedback on shot duration, continuity of the soundtrack and synchronizing our sequence.

Target Audience/Certificate

For our thriller opening sequence our target audience will be 15-25 year olds. We decided the target audience after taking into account the genre of our film, plot/summary and the events. Therefore our film being a thriller about an epidemic it is suitable for this age range. A younger age range would mean that it may be confusing as there is no particular chronological order of events in the sequence. Our sequence does not contains nudity, discriminatory language and actions, frequent strong language, sexual violence or strong horror scenes so it is not necessary to rate it 18 years of age or above.

Our film sequence is most likely to be classified as a 15 by the BBFC meaning that it is suitable for the viewing of 15 year olds and over.




The following information is taken of the BBFC site (http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/categories_15) :

What sort of issues might I find in a ‘15’ film, DVD or video game?

‘15’ works are stronger than '12' or ‘12A’ rated works and could include any of the following:

• strong violence
• frequent strong language (eg 'f***').
• portrayals of sexual activity
• strong verbal references to sex
• sexual nudity
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence
• discriminatory language or behaviour
• drug taking

Occasionally there may be uses of the strongest terms (eg 'c***'), although continued aggressive use will not normally be passed at ‘15’. For more detailed information on the ‘15’ category click here to read the BBFC guidelines

The most recent film to be classified as a 15 by the BBFC is 'Date Night'. It contains moderate sex references and one use of strong language.

Evaluation questions

These are the questions that have to be included in our powerpoint evaluations :

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Storyboard

This is a picture of a close up shot of the main character in our sequence. It is then last shot of the sequence because it will make the audience want to carry on watching the film, as it builds suspense and generates questions.

This is the first sheet of our story board. It includes various medium shots of Cambridge, busy areas and shots of newspapers illustrating swine flu, this gives away clues to the narrative.



The last sheet of our story board is mostly empty areas of Cambridge which is contrasting to the first part of our sequence. We will try and show drastic changes between the first and last part of the sequence as this will give away clues to the narrative.

We will try and use our story board as a guideline for our filming so that we make sure that everything is in order and we stick to our idea.

Planning for filming

Costume
There are currently no characters starring in our opening sequence, but if we do have characters the costume will be kept to casual clothing. With conventional long black coat or big black boots.

Props
The props that we may need are clothing ( black long coat or boots) if we decide to have a character in our sequence. We are going


Lighting- effect & equipment
I think we should try ans achieve low key lighting when wee show Cambridge as empty. And high key lighting when there is people to show life and action.

Sound
Sound effects will be used in our sequence to create suspense.
Sound effects such as wind to emphasize lifeless atmosphere in the beginning of the film.

Make up/ hair
The character that may star in the film will have to look scruffy and carefree.

List of equipment
Camera , Tripod , Microphone,

Times and Dates you want to film, including a back up plan

Monday 8th February - 3:25 after college
Tuesday 9th February - 9:00 before college

Wednesday 10th February - 2:00 after college
Thursday 11th February - 4:10 after college

Locations
For the first part of our film we need to film deserted areas of Cambridge. So we are going to try and find quite areas around Cambridge during the day.
Some ideas for locations include:
-Addenbrookes underground path
-Street near the train station
-Train station bike areas
-Quiet streets after the train station near mill road








For the last part of our film we need to film busy areas of Cambridge to emphasis busy atmosphere and link it to the first part of the film.
Some ideas of the locations included the following:
-Town centre
-Grand arcade
-Parkers peace
- Station



These are a few places in that we are thinking of using to film the busy shots of Cambridge









Production Roles

Camera - Londie Ncube

Sound Editor - Lewis Shepherd

Director - Ben Shimmens

Editor - Ben Shimmens

Location Manager - Alex Irvine

Test photos/ footage

We used footage like this, as we wanted long panning shots, and also shots that gave the feeling that the place was deserted.

Analysis of Opening Sequences

Heat:
Sound:
There is a combination of different sounds that creates tension throughout the opening sequence. The sound is also heightened at certain periods, e.g. the heart monitors in hospital. In the beginning the sound is soft and slow and sets the scene in LA. The music gets quicker when the main character reaches the hospital and walks through the many corridors.

Camera Shots:
The camera shots are quick and rapid, some seem to follow the way the character moves. This makes the audience feel as if they are the main character and are walking in his footsteps. It also heightens the tension throughout the sequence and makes the whole piece feel more urgent. At the end, there are a lot of close-ups of what the long haired character (Val Kilmer) is carrying in the box.


No Country for Old Men:
Sound:
Throughout the duration of the sequence, the majority of the sound was dominated by a narration/voice-over. There is also subtle hints of environmental sounds underneath the narration. A soundtrack kicks in when there is the fight in the police station and the music is sharp and tense to symbolize the environment in which the scene is taking place.

Camera Shots:
There are long and medium shots that capture the landscape in which the narrator is describing and the duration of the shots are not that long. During the fight scene there are lots of shots of the same episode, but they are taken from lots of different angles to give different perspectives of the scene.


Carlito's Way
Sound:
At the beginning of the sequence the only sound that could be heard was a gunshot that occurred twice. After that, cinematic music started and continued throughout the entire sequence, until the last few shots when the main character narrates until the sequence finishes.

Camera Shots:
There are not a great deal of shots throughout the sequence, just long continuous shots that pan around the main action that is occurring. The camera spins around to disorientate the audience and make them feel like the main character who has just been shot. The final couple of shots were switching between the main characters face and a poster that is the only thing in the sequence that is in colour.

Planning For The Thriller - Brainstorm of |Ideas

First idea:
Character 1 wakes up in the room clueless of his surroundings. He touches the back of his head to find blood (which in our case was brown sauce).
Character2 then comes onto the television screen to talk to character1.
Character1 is afraid and has been somehow put in that room by character2.
Character2 then informs Character1 of where he is and threatens him in some ways.

Idea Development:
Character1 could be tied up and fighting to be let loose.


Second Idea:
Psycho woman is cooking up soup to go and give to tied up character.
At the end it rewinds quickly all the way back to the start.
Most of filming time is taken up by shots of her cooking the soup etc.
The sequence should be full of close ups and play around with the viewer's senses.

Idea development:
Filming of the setting could build tension.

Third Idea:
Shows Grand Arcade during the day really busy and then towards the end of the night it's empty with two lonely characters walking around.
This will be a clue to the narrative of the film.

Idea development:
We could film cars and people and speed them up to speed up time. One character could be stalking the other.
Message through face-book of meeting at grand arcade.

Logo Movie

At the beginning of our thriller video we were briefed that we had to make a logo title video.

To start, we made a picture on Photoshop CS3 by combining layers of text and a picture of a red ball.
Secondly, we then imported all the layers into Final Cut Express and combined them on a time line and used the "add motion keyframe" tool so that the logo now had movement as can be seen in the movie below.
Finally we made our own soundtrack on GarageBand and added it to the movie clip to create the final Quicktime Movie.
We decided on the name BALL Productions as the word BALL uses all of our initials as the first letter.

Evaluating other students thriller sequences!

'Processed-P1-50'

After watching this title sequence we decided to grade this at level 3- 37 marks.

We thought that:

• It was conventional but remained unique.
• The whole sequence was well edited which made it look professional.
• It was proficient in the use of mise-en-scene, the objects, lighting and setting was well selected.
• Titles where used appropriately and made it appear well thought out.
• All the editing was continuous and this meant that the meaning was apparent to the viewer.

Cape Fear

1) What clues does the sequence give you about the film ( Micro & Macro)?

The mise en scene in the opening sequence gives us various clues about the rest of the film. various faces and other things such as birds suggest that the film may be based around these ideas. The continuous images of water suggest that the setting of the film may be based around this. the faces revealed in the opening sequence suggest that they may be characters that feature in the film, maybe the protagonist and antagonist. I think the opening titles gives away the clues that leave the audience questioning, o they have to watch the rest of the film.

2) How does it conform to conventions of thriller?

The music used in the sequence is a conventional thriller soundtrack and his works to create tension and prepare the audience for the film. The soundtrack contrast which elaborates the musical score. This build suspense and builds an atmosphere.

The lighting in the sequence is very dull, with use of dull tone colours which is conventional as it sets the scene for thriller films. Another conventional technique that the film uses is the mystery. Although the sequence gives several clues away to the views. These are limited so that the viewer continuous to watch the film to see what happens. This builds a mystery for the audience as they become curious about the several ideas that are given away in the opening titles.

Opening thriller sequence - Briefing/Conventions

Enigma - mystery for audience- convetionally revealed before end of narrative

Narrative - Often complex (twists/unexpected)

Protagonist and antagonist (villain or a force)
-Often has a flaw or weakness, has to overcome( Antagonist uses this against them).
-Similar characters

Sound- contrasts, elaborate musical score
-suspense and tension and silence

Sub genres of Thriller
(specific genres within larger category of thriller)

Supernatural Thriller e.g. Paranormal Activity,Sixth sense

Hybrid(mixture of genres)
Drama Thriller, Action Thriller, Romantic Thriller, Crime Thriller e.g. Se7en, Godfather.

Sci-fi Thriller e.g. Star Trek

Thriller are not to be confused with Horrors. Horrors are more bloody, frightening which is most of the time contrasting to Thrillers.

BBFC 15 and 18 Ratings

The BBFC stands for the British Board of Film Classification.They are an independent and a non-governmental body. It is the organisation legally responsible fro film classification in the United Kingdom. They are responsible for the current certificates like PG,U and 12 etc.




Suitable only for those aged 15 and over.

Nobody younger than 15 can see a 15 film in a cinema. No-one younger than 15 can rent or buy a 15 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.

18 Suitable only for adults.

Nobody younger than 18 may see an 18 film in a cinema.
No-one younger than 18 can rent or buy an 18 rated VHS, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, UMD or game.

Typical reasons for restricting films to the 18 certificate category have included scenes of hard drug use, supernatural horror, explicit sex, sadistic violence and sexual violence




*Information taken from the BBFC website and Wikipedia

Prelim Task

The sequence we made for our preliminary task had to include the following shots: Establishing shot, close-up shot, match on action shot, shot reverse shot and long shot. We had to storyboard a short sequence that included all of these shots. Our final was a minute long after the editing process on Final Cut Express. The equipment that we used included a camera, tripod and the computer software. We used linear editing which means the order of events was clear to the viewer.

The hardest thing about the Preliminary Task was continuity editing, we had difficulties making sure our sequence was smooth and flowing throughout. The Preliminary Task has prepared us for the Thriller sequence.