Rough cut

After presenting our rough cut to our class we got feedback from 3 of the groups on how to improve our sequence we were given a set of questions that we needed to answer for each opening sequence the questions are as following:

1) How well have the technical areas been produced? (camerawork, editing, sound and mis-en-scene) 

2) How well has the genre characteristics been used? can you identify the sub-genre?

3) What do you like about the rough cut?

4) How can they improve the rough cut and what criticism can you give the group?

The first set of feed back we got was:

Group 1 feedback:

1) - Good Sound - Dialogue and ambient sounds were clear.

    - Location was good as the room was plain.

    - Low key lighting may of added to the mysterious feel.

    - Good use of make-up and costume. 

    - Camerawork could be more accurate.

2) The beginning of the rough cut is what gives the main characters of a thriller, it also helps to add    

    meaning and gives it an edgy feel. psychological thriller is easy to identify 

3) The makeup and costume is what makes the rough cut professional and realistic, the acting was on     

    point.

4) To improve the rough cut you could keep the camera still whilst in the hall way, 

    different shots need to be used. 

Group 3 feedback:

1)  The camera work in the first shot is effective and professional however the second shot is wobberly       

     and the harsh lighting takes the attention slightly away from the actresses. 

    Good acting. The zoom is blurry and slightly unclear.

    Good, effective, costume and makeup.

2) Psychological thriller is clear as we can see that the woman is confused about what's going on. The     

    mis-en-scene and camera work help to show the audience this genre as the characteristics are     

    realistic. 

3) The original narrative. The setting is professional and matches well. Costume and paper work props 

    work well.

4) Camera work needs to be steady and focused, lighting could be improved. 

Group 4 feedback:

1) Camerawork - good angles.

    Sound - Nice sound, we like the police siren added.

    Mis-en-scene - brilliant costume/make up and also good acting. 

    Editing - Smooth editing 

2) Psychological thriller, is obvious because of make up and acting. Also back of 'patient' builds  

    enigmas, white costume implies mental institution. 

3) We really like costume and make up. We are confused already and asking questions 32 seconds. 

4) Some camerawork was a bit shakes (the zoom) more explanations as to why its 'her turn'

    Make editing faster and a bit more slower at points.  

Shooting schedule

Photo evidence of filming

This is a collage of our filming process.

Test shots

   

The short clip uploaded above is a series of practiced test shots done by our group. 
By the use of final cut we separated the test shots and sequenced them together in order to produce this 30 second clip. Secondly we then followed a sheet of simple instructions on how to convert our test shots into a You tube video, but encountered difficulties located the video so we directly uploaded it from our desktop file.

The test shots were filmed at the initial location of Marnies apartment. We thought it was a significant process to practice in order to perfect our initial production. We also agreed that by having as many different types of shots will allow us to play around with the editing and enable us to add as many different shot types within it. By filming a variety of shots we are able to make it more visually appealing and allow the audience to understand what we are trying to portray.

By having a variety of shot enables us to capture different angles of our film and see what works best for each scene.

By using final cut we were able to edit and put together our test shots, enabling us organise and analyse what would work best within each scene. The way we have combined it makes it easier for viewers to understand what we are trying to achieve within our sequence. Next we were given a set of instructions to follow that would help us upload our short clip onto Blogger along with the rest of our work.

We believe our test shots would be effective as it gives the audience an insight into what is in store during the sequence without giving too much away.

Test shots allow both us and the audience to assess whether certain shots would work within certain scenes, enabling us to create different enigmas at different points.

While conducting test shots for the sequence we stumbled across different issues that we faced making us aware of thing we would have to avoid while filming the final production. Examples of this would be..

- How to best deal with hand held filming without unnecessary movement or zooming.

- finding the right camera angles

- Continuity

- 180* rule

- Control of external sound.
by taking all of the above into consideration, it will support us to avoid any mistakes or errors that might occur and that have come to our attention while producing the tests shot.

Animatic

Camerawork For Thriller Movies

The most common shot types used in thriller films are close ups and longs shots. For example, in The Watcher a long shot was used at the beginning of the film when the audience saw the SWAT team walking towards the door. This shows the audience where the action is taking place and creates suspense. There was a close up used at the beginning of the antagonist dancing with a gun in his hand. This leaves the audience puzzled because they’re unsure about the situation at hand, it leaves them asking questions like “what has he done?”. Tilt shots and Pan shots are also common in thriller openings to lay emphasises on the action taking place at a particular moment in time. For example, there was a tilt shot used to show the audience a building and it was followed by a pan shot of several police vehicles speeding towards the same location. High angle shots are used in thriller films to focus on a particular subject and this creates a dramatic feeling if there is someone at a higher level that can seethe characters below. An example of this would be when the helicopters were flying over the sea and the audience could see police vehicle patrol. However, low angle shots are used to show people who are below and may not necessarily the main character. For example, there was a low angle shot used to show the SWAT team when they were about to break into the room.

Editing in Thriller Movies

We thought it would be a good idea that before we started editing our actual film to look at other opening sequences from thriller films to get some inspiration. There are so many thriller film that are all edited is different ways to try and makwee themselves stand out from the rest, but they are all very unique in their own ways which is what we intend to do for our film.
We have chosen two different thriller opening sequences which in a way relate to our film but also how the editing catches my eye. The first one we looked at was the opening sequence from 'THE WOMAN IN BLACK'.. The opening sequence to this is only 1:31 minutes long but it tells you so much about the film in that short period of time making you want to watch more and find out what happens, which would be a good focus point for our film.




The first thing you see in the opening sequence is a close up of a teapot and teacups being played with (pretending to pour cups of tea), then you see a child serving a doll a cup of tea which lets the audience know that their are children involved in the opening sequence. After serving the dolls with tea it goes to a Medium shot of all three of the girls playing with dolls, this makes things more clear for the viewers.. Next we have some short shot duration shots/close ups of the girls brushing the dolls hair and tucking them into bed, which then got to a two way head shot of two of the girls smiling, symbolizing that they are all friends having a nice time playing together. This then goes to a head shot of the third girl smiling back at them and moving forward for the camera to then show a match on action shot of what she was leaning forward to do which is placing a cup onto a little plate. after showing this the camera goes to a slight low angle view of the girls as if someone is looking down on them, this is a long shot duration shot to show that the girls are still playing and slowly all together look up at this mysterious person. This leads to a medium shot of all of the girl turning to look in the other direction which leads to an eye match shot of the window at the end of the room. We then snap to a shot of all the girls standing up, a close up or two of the girls standing up and then a close up of the third girls feet as she has stood up. Next is a close up shot of the girl holding one of the teacups and dropping it which is then shown in a close up shot falling to the floor and smashing into pieces. 

This is to show that the girls were having a good time playing with their teacups and dolls but now whatever they were doing has taken all of their attention and have almost forgotten about what they were playing.

To help with this point there are more close up shots of their feet and them all walking towards the window, along the way they all tread on teapots and dolls faces which all smash and break under their feet. They then use tracking to show the girls all mesmerized by something which is making them walk towards the window simultaneously. Followed by a long shot of the girls stepping up onto the ledge by the windows so they can reach the handles to open the windows, a close up of one of the girls opening the windows is then used for it to then come back to the long shot of the girls this time showing them standing on the edge of the window to then suddenly jump out of the window. To end all of this the camera stays shooting the window while slowly tracking backwards, there is a quick close up of one of the girls dolls, however it comes back to the slowing tracking backwards of the camera to finish it off.

We believe this is a good opening sequence to a thriller film, as the shots, angles and movements of the camera are not to complicated and it has already shown you quite a lot of the film without giving to much away. 

Introduction of sound

The importance of sound in media is highly evident in carrying out the narrative effectively.In the pre-historic era early 1800's-1900's films were generated without sound, refered to as motion pictures excluding sound (silent films).
1926 a year to memorise- Hollywood studio Warner Bros introduced the "Vitaphone" system, producing short films of live entertainment acts and public figures and adding recorded sound effects and orchestral scores to some of its major features. 
During late 1927, Warners released The Jazz Singer, which was mostly silent but contained the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film. It was a great success, as were follow-ups like Warners' The Lights of New York (1928)," the first all-synchronized-sound feature."
As years progressed the film industry was more prominent in including sound effects and sound techniques. 
One of the earliest thriller movies was Harold Lloyd's comic Safety Last released in 1923 which predominantly was a silent picture- we began to see thriller films with added sounds in the late 1900's.

Sound brings an otherworldliness to what we watch. It is the faint whisper telling us of the gravity of an unfolding story. It strengthens the importance of a message, and can bring extra tears when we thought none were left. To exemplify the experience captured by watching silent films vs non-silent films is a video uploaded above as an explanation and portrayal of the different effects that can be created.

Diagetic (ambient) Sound- A representation of sound which is originated from the film world. This sound could also be referred to as ambient sound in which it clearly inhabits a sense of verisimilitude. Also it is a part of the narrative and complements the overall message that is being depicted. To exemplify here are some common sounds illustrated in films; Telephone ringing, Door creaking, Footsteps, breathing, wind, rain etc.

Non Diagetic - A portrayal of sound that is outside the origin of the narrative. Audience have the ability to hear these particular sounds but do not know were the source of the sound is. Moreover the characters are unaware of these sounds as they are delusional to the outside world of the narrative. Non-diagetic sound usually takes place in a form of a narrative voice, background music or a soundtrack.
We have further aspects of sound- parallel, contrapuntal and sound bridge.
Parallel sounds are effective in portraying the correct emotion suited to it's specific scene. For example; A scene containing a tragic happening will be complemented by subtle, dull sad music. Contrapuntal sound on the other hand, are unique and do not match emotions or actions of the scene, so a joyful and happy scene will include sinister music- an effective technique as the audience is aware of a bad happening in contrast to the characters who are unaware.
Sound bridges are when music or sounds flow continuously in the the next following scenes- gradually building smooth transitions from scene to scene.

(Diagetic) Dialogue                                                                                                                                   

A few examples demonstrated within are production-
[Enter the Dr and Reporter, conversing regarding the patient’s health and mental state]

Dr: Nina Ward is a rather disturbed patient due to her past happenings; I am not able to contemplate her reaction to your questions. So please could you be careful and try not to touch a nerve she tends to get rather upset awfully quickly.

Reporter: Thank you doc, I shall be careful. Could you please direct me to her room and perhaps allow us to be alone. It’s just that commonly patients are hesitant as to what they say in front of their doctors.

Significance of sound within our production- Sound within our production is an important feature as it contributes to the thriller aspects creating suspense for our target audience. From dialogue we are clearly able to acknowledge the characters within the production. Furthermore the inclusion of diagetic sound builds the level of thrill experienced by the audience. Lastly, our soundtrack that was created on Garage Band is a mixture of sinister music and ambient sounds- which were exaggerated in order to add a thriller element to the when the sound takes place.

Thriller mood board

The collage above is a portrayal of successful thriller films which we, as a group have taken inspiration from in order to conduct are thriller opening sequence. Ideas and themes we recognised in these movies influenced are initial and final ideas. Each film diferentiates from one another with a variety of sub-genres but all are successful in depicting many of the thriller conventions.

The movies chosen are influencial thriller films as they are commonly known as the most effective films in revealing the genre. Their success is mainly highlighted with the effect they manage to cause and create uppon their target audience.

Suspense is a common theme within these films as the narrative accurately illustrates diminutive information regarding the next action. This effect is thrilling as the audience experience many shocks and frights as they are in the dark throughout the whole film. Our group adored this idea and we worked around this idea to build a narrative for our thriller opening sequence. The opening sequence we are filming is build on suspense as the audience are confused and feel a sense of unawareness.

Majority of these films are awarded with ratings of 8/10 and others given the average 6/10.

Mis-en-scene - The Unseen Case

Emmanuel is the actual patient the reporter is supposed to interview, but due to the psychological twist the reporter fails to interview her and is haunted by 'Nina Ward' (who is played by Marnie) the antagonist. We used dark eye shadow to out line her eyes and make her look as though she has been deprived of sleep and to emphasize the look that shes ill. 

Our antagonist is 'Nina Ward' whom will be played by Marnie. She is the unseen patient that plays mind games on the reporter. In order to make our mis-en-scene come to life we asked a professional makeup artist (Nellie Stevenson) to create a burn on Marnies face that will allow the audience to feel the full effect of the sequence. By darkening the outline of her bones Nellie was able to make Marnie look anorexic and ill. This is an effect that we thought was good and would fit in well with Marnies character. We decided the profile picture that would go into the case file should have the effect that was subtle to portay the image that she is healing and getting better by using the appropriate makeup, but when filming the final sequence we have decided to make the burn more explicit and painful in order to portray a distressing image that will fit in with our rating and genre.

This was the final result of the makeup Nellie did on Marnie. The negative image of making her look anorexic and giving her a burn on her face that appears to be healing has a good effect and contrasts nicely with the final sequence.

This is a collage that we put together of all the pictures we took on the first ever attempt of our production, and on our mis-en-scene for the film, Nellie worked incredibly hard on the healing burn and the anorexic look on Marnie allowing us to get an explicit image of Marnie, and to get the full effect of making our character look like an ill mental patient.

Location

    

Location is an important factor contributing to the success of ones film as it is effective in creating an appropriate atmosphere and mood regarding the narrative.
Corridors are usually associated with sinister emotions and dangerous happenings. This is why we decided and agreed to have our ending scene take place here. This corridor gives a feel of being in a private mental asylum were everything is un-kept and rather provoking. It also relates to are narrative and thriller conventions, raising enigma as well as suspense.

Behind these closed doors we will create sinister sounds that will imply that there are patients behind every door, this will give it a spooky effect and create a nail biting suspense as to what will happen next or as to who is behind the door.

Windows are commonly associated with lack of freedom or a passage to freedom. We have identified this theme and included it into our narrative as the asylum patients are deprived of their freedom as they are confined to a isolated room. The bars on this specif window are a symbol of loneliness and danger, possibly inflicted by the patients. Their mental state is understood by the illustration of these barriers and tampered scenery.

Using the security camera we will create a scene that will kick off the suspense and the thriller aspect to the sequence, as the main character will be seen by the audience but not the protagonist. By using this we will try to create a suspense that may match the level of a professional production. 

Logo ideas

LOGO IDEAS

Every film has a company logo to represent who they are and who the film is owned by.

We have been told to come up with our own logo as a group to make the beginning of our film seem more realistic for the viewers. As a group we thought it would a good idea to try and think of something that was linked to our story-line in a way, or find something similar that we all liked and change it in a way to make it our own. We decided to focus on company logos from horrors or psychological thrillers, these are what we came up with....

In the collage above you will see examples that we found such as Ghost house pictures, Paradox Productions, New line cinema, Lionsgate, Scream factory and a lot of other different types of logo designs. They are all fairly dark and have some connotations of mystery to them. The text used tends to be bold and have an airy or bloody effect to them, this gives it more of a sinister look and complements the picture. But in some cases there this isnt the case and its just plain text, i.e Dimension films and Revolt productions, despite there being no picture both logos have used text that stands out and still looks effective and clearly states which production company they are.

To create our logo we were told to use the software Adobe Photoshop, this is because it has been used by many other media years before us and it has correct tools that will enable us to create a good company logo for our films.

We have used the above company logos to influence us into what ours should look like, as a group we all sat down and brainstormed our thoughts for the logo and what we thought would be best and what would work best. Throughout our opening sequence you will notice that main character has a burn scar on her face, this is because she was caught in a house fire earlier on in her life. This is the source of which we all chose to base our logo image on to try represent and link it to our film. The name of the logo will be called 'BLAZE PICTURES'.. again to show that we are linking the burned face in the filming to the company logo. We are hoping to use a moving picture of fire so that we can try and make the logo stand out from everyone else's.

This is a example of what we were aiming our final logo to look like we used this as a template to plan out what we wanted to do, the name blaze came from the idea of a fire. Initially we are trying to work on getting a moving image up and then placing the text of blaze pictures, on top of it to give it more of a fierce and prominant look. We are also debating about whether to add a sound that will also compliment the logo, we were hoping to include the sound of a fire starting up and the sound of a flame crackling, this would bring our logo to life a bit more and allow is to portray the full effect of this image within our opening sequence.

Logo Analysis and Production

                                


This is the logo for Columbia Pictures.
Layout and Structure: The Columbia pictures logo has a woman carrying a torch and wearing a toga wrapped in a blue cloth. It could be interpreted as the statue of liberty holding her torch. The background is of the sky and the fundamental image the woman stands out as she’s standing on a platform. The sun shines really bright and highlights the woman, and the title at the top represents Columbia.

Iconography: The woman in the logo could stand as a personification of the United States. The image in the logo could represent freedom which could be a representation of the genre of films the company produces.

Font: The font used is mostly in capital letters, especially the name at the top of the logo. The colour gold represents power, confidence, success, prestige, elegance and optimism.




                                                                              
                                              This is the logo for DreamWorks 


Layout and Structure: This is a simple logo of a young boy sitting on a crescent moon while fishing. It mainly centres the production company name. The crescent could also represent bed time which could suggest they specialise in movies for children.

Iconography: The image is really simple which easily grabs the audiences attention. The logo emphasises the companies name which corresponds to bed time and little children.

Font: The font used is in capital letters which highlights the production name. Black and White represent innocence and purity. The companies name is in bold letters which makes it memorable for the audience to re-call. 

Title Effects Ideas

TITLE EFFECT IDEAS
As a group we decided to pu the title at the end of the 2 minute opening sequence so that the audience can get into the film better.

We looked at films that had a story line similiar to ours or any psychological thriller films whos titles stood out to us more than others. After looking at many different opening titles we found one that we wanted to base ours on, and that is the 'paranormal activity' title...

This is because the title is nothing big and colourful or anything that jumps out at you, instead it is more of bright writing that looks like it has been filmed with a home hand-held camara to give it more of a realistic effect. The makers of the title added an effect where the title jumps as if there is something wrong with the camera or like something is happening.

We as a group think this would work well with the initial idea of our opening sequence, this is because at one point in the film there will be a part where the audience will be looking at a security camera where something spooky happens, it is also one of the first major jumps of the sequence.

Make-up/costumes ideas

MAKE-UP

For the main character in the film, we decided that when she first appears in the production that it will be surprise, so by doing her make-up to make her look sinister would make the mood of the surprise even more scary. This is also because throughtout the opening sequence there wont be many facial shots of her, they will mostly be of the back of her head where you will only see her hair, that is all messy and clearly in bad condition.

We came up with this idea as in nearly all thrillers you have a sinister twist to certain characters, or if for instance with our character they only show up by surprise then instead of making them look normal we would try and emphasise the look of there face to try make the audience almost jump off there seats, not just from the surprise factor but also the depth of makeup effects on her face.

For insperation we look at many different films where you have the classical girl in a white gown and long, messy hair and there were alot of options that we could pick from. For example...

We got loads of ideas from all of there characters but the main characters hair and make-up we wanted to focus on was 'samara' from 'THE RING'. Her make-up is always emphasised to look scarred and dirty so we wanted to do something similar so our charcter gives the audience the extra bit of fright!!

COSTUME

As mentioned earlier, the costumes will be a pretty simple white gown to give the classic thriller, horror movie feeling. We will probably make it dirty and abit tatty to show that its old and worn out from the character but the main idea is to keep it simple so that it doesnt take away too much of the audiences attention. We are hoping to get a gown from the hospital to make the whole asylum effect more realistic.
Here are some images that we came up with that would go well with the ideas that we have come up....                                   

Hopefully we manage to get the look for our character that we want and that we able to creat the sinister asylum charcter but still make it realistic enough to make the audience get chills down there spine.