Day Four: Recording Experience

Day Three: Recording Filming Experience

Day Two: Recording of Filming Experience

Day Two: Filming Experience

On Friday 8th February, we decided to continue the recording of our film opening. We used the same location in Manor house and in our delight the weather was fairly decent. In day two of the recording of our opening, we managed to finish the scene where the drunk is hallucinating about being with his 'girlfriend'. For this scene, I had to change the clothes I was wearing to show that it is only a thought and to show the contrast of the two characters I am playing. I decided to dress in brighter colours during the hallucination to demonstrate happiness and gracefullness he feels when is with her. This is a fine example of binary oppositions, having two opposing characters to display their type of characters.

Here are a few shots that we took on the day of our recording:

 

Overall, I think Day 2 of our recording was a success. We finished the scene we wanted to do and even got in a range of shots such as close ups and establishing shots . We finished early and had fun whilst recording.

Structure Of Title Sequence

Structures of Film Openings are very essential  when creating any kind of film. There are four types of structures to a film opening however there are three basic structures which are: 

Discrete Title Sequence

A narrative opening

Credits over a blank screen

Discrete Title Sequence: Discrete title sequences are separately edited sequences that stand apart from the film opening. They are stylised and heavily edited, and they support nearly all of the opening credits and film title.

An example which shows a Discrete Opening  would be the film The Enemy Of The State (1998) or Arlington Road. Here is the opening for The Enemy Of The State:

An example which shows a narrative opening would be Panic Room:

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is where movies borrow some aspects of another movie, this could consist of upon the props, camera, techniques, sound or editing. There are many reasons why movies tend to do this, one reason could be that the producers are illustrating the type of genre the movie is by including similar aspects of a successful movie. Examples of Intertextuality would be scenes from the famous movies of Psycho and Fatal Attraction

Psycho (1960)

This shower scene in Psycho has been borrowed and implemented onto other films by various film producers around the world with various conventions that are alike to that of Psycho, this shower scene is a well known  and recognized scene in film history (Classic Scene) 

Fatal Attraction (1987)

The kitchen knife used in this scene is the same in the one that they use in Psycho, which shows an example of Intertextuality. Another convention that is used is the white tiles and white shower curtains, these elements are aslo borrowed from the shower scene of Psycho

Day One: Filming Experience

On Wednesday 6th February, my colleagues and I decided to film the opening of our Thriller. Still being weary about the location of the opening, Phoebe and I discussed whether we should film near the college- in the park or around my area. After a well thought discussion, we decided to film near my area as it has all the necessities for our opening. We told the other members of the group (Rahi and Mohsin) and instantly went to the location.

As we got there, we went inside to have a final group discussion about the opening. To see if anyone in the group had any new ideas about they wanted to contribute or what they didn't like about the plot. During the debate, we decided to change the order of our opening. We thought it'll be better if the opening scene was the drunk waking up on the bench and hallucinate that he's in a relationship with the girl.

I found the first day filming quite easy. The task was simple for me because all I had to do is pretend I was sleeping on the bench. We got several of shots like close ups, mid shots and high angle shots to show that the character is vulnerable and feeling weak due to the 'heartbreak' that he suffered.

A few new changes...

For our film opening, we decided to change a few things. We all went to Benjamin's house and had a professional well structured debate about the sequence of the opening, simply changing the order of the original storyboard. We're still working on the different type of shots that we are going to use, so far we have many close ups and mid shots but when we continue we are thinking of using an establishing shot on one of the characters to introduce them.

Also, we decided to use a different location for our opening. Initially, we wanted to film in the park next to the college but after a group discussion we gladly decided to film in Benjamin's area as it has all the necessities for our opening.

Here's the new location of our film opening:

 

 

 

Analysis of Student Film Opening

'Stroke' Film Analysis

Mise en scene: The red paint in Stroke implicates blood, which may suggest that the thriller involves violence, and the sub-genre of it could be Horror. The paintings seem unnatural and make the

Sound: Motif is used in the video, the sound of a violin gives the audience that it is mysterious, also the sound being repetitive sound makes it quite creepy and terrifying.

Editing: When the title credits appear the, blood also appears which again indicates that this thriller video is gory and horrific.

Camera: The close up of the character possibly suggest that they may be evil, and the slow panning of filming the artwork gives a further signs of the event eerie and disturbing.

Pitch Evaluation

Our pitch did not go quite as planned as there was a several faults, due to the lack of preparation of our presentation of the pitch. We weren't clear enough when explaining what exactly our thriller video would be about to the audience, despite that the our prezi was well made and gave a better understanding of what our thriller video would be about. one thing we failed to put in our prezi is the schedule of when we would do the filming. After the pitch, Mary indicated that we switch our story-line from back to front, because it was quite confusing.  However, we did show the storyboards and pictures of the props that we would be using in our filming, and overall the whole pitch did alright, and we have something to work on and improve.

Evalutation of the Pitch

Yesterday's pitch came as a shock to me, my team and I weren't nearly as ready as we thought we were. We struggled to elaborate on the production schedule section, we didn't have a clear idea of what/when we was going to do a particular task. The storyboard that we produced lacked coherence, the structure seemed to be off and confusing to us and the audience. We were advised to change the order of it by Mary due to the weak explanations of the plot. We are currently decided to edit the storyboard on Wednesday 6th February in Dan's lesson and hopefully start recording on the 8th on Friday. In the pitch, we had done a prezi. This made the layout clear and easy for our audience to understand. The font were clear and readable, it had all the relevant information about our movie and images and videos of our props and movies that inspired us for our moive. If were to repeat this task again, I will constantly rehearse the things that are going to be said and say it in professional manner. Also, I will informing the other members of the group of what they should say and how they shou say it; taking the role as a leader. From this, I've learnt that the physical presentation is not always the most important thing when giving a pitch.

Snapshots Of Pitch

Weather report of our filming

Next week when we begin on our filming Wednesday 8th February, the forecast looks it will be between  -6 to 5, thankfully there is no risk of snow or storm, but if we feel the weather is not suitable to film we will delay our filming on Friday 8th.

Conventions Of A thriller

Conventions of Thriller films

Titles: Most of the films I've studied have seemed to have their credits done over a black screen with some non diegetic music playing in the background to set the scene. It is also common for some films to start with a particular event before titles start to show, my examples include Terminator 2(T2), Kill Bill vol1(KB) and The Departed(TD) which all before beginning show you a clip of what probably the film will be about. Another convention of titles is that usually the most important film companies or actors in the film are shown first in the credits.

Camera:  movementTracking and Pan shots is what’s commonly used in the beginning of thriller films, particularly a certain group of people who we should be interested in as the audience. An example is the bank heist scene in The Dark Knight(DK) where the camera tracks the group at certain points. Zooming in and out was a rarity that was only seen in DK during an action scene.

 Framing of shot: The most typical shot used in thriller films seems to be the close up, greatly used in both films Se7en and Kill Bill vol 1 to build suspense and mystery in the beginning. Long shots have also been a commonality among thriller films being used in both DK and T2 to set the scene and show the audience where the action will be taking place in the upcoming events of the film.

Camera angles: Things that seem to be quite common are the low levels of framing and the high angles at certain points, the high angle is used mainly to show those in a powerful position but they might also be used such as in T2 with the first arrival of the terminator shown to be in control and having most of the power. There seems to be a main character(s) in the beginning which seems to have the majority of power and this is shown through the camera angles.

Mise en scene: The general location used in the thriller movies I've studied depends on the story of the movie themselves and because of that there’s a lot of difference in location. Lighting is a key aspect used in most of the films such as T2 and se7en where they all use lighting but for different reasons, while trying to set up a particular overriding tone or atmosphere for the upcoming film. Such as T2 using lighting with machinery to set a Sci-Fi thriller theme.

Editing: Jump cuts become a commonality during thriller films as they were used in two of my films, both T2 and DK. This is usually because multiple things are happening that we’re unaware of and the jump cuts fill us in, they allow us as the audience to make assumptions on what the story or characters will be like. While the jump cuts are built up in both DK and T2 they eventually draw to a close, however the cutting rate seems to increase which ultimately seems to lead to a miniature climax of the introduction.

Sound: All films analysed had non diegetic music playing in the background creating a sound bridge to create a certain atmosphere. Some films such as DK or KB use dialogue, even if not that much - this usually gives us an insight to the characters motives or their relationships with other characters in the film. Silence and sonic exaggeration are 2 techniques used in both DK and T2, This is very thought provoking and does well to build up tension, which seems to be a strong convention for thriller films.

Actors: positioning and movementThe intro is our first introduction to a character(s) so they normally tend to be in the middle of the frame, this is the case for KB and T2. Their movement however seems to be very dependent on the situation they’re in at the time, while some like in T2 and DK seem to be quite organised in what they’re doing so their movement seems to be quite co-ordinated although sometimes unpredictable. A characters movement usually tells us something about the person, and through the movies analysed i can see some move frantically while others are slow and calculated. So it seems a convention for their to be two different groups with two different movement patterns.

Analysis Of Film Opening - Saving Private Ryan

Summary of the opening 2-5 minutes The film begins by showing an older man, a war time veteran visiting the grave yard of the fallen soldiers who fought and died in World War II with his family. As he stumbles through the graves he finds the grave which makes him think back to the war, causing a flash back to appear, presenting the D-Day invasion. The landing boats hit the French beaches and the Germans try to fight back resulting in thousand of deaths to American soldiers until the reach the defensive area allowing them to break the German offensive and successfully invade.

Locations:  Normandy, where the large military grave yards are located. Normandy Beaches during the invasion on France. 

Characters:  The old man who is unknown at the beginning of the film. The old mans family. Captain John H. Miller is seen on one of the landing boats during the invasion along with Sgt. Mike Horvath providing orders to the men. As the invasion pushes up the beach you get introduced to the soldiers which will become the main characters; Pvt. Richard Reiben Pvt. Daniel Jackson Pvt. Stanley Mellish Pvt. Adrian Caparzo T-5 Medic Irwin Wade.

Editing: On the beach, short sharp cuts between each shot occur to bring the pace up to Fit the environment and the surroundings. Whereas in the graves the editing is Much slower paced between cuts.

Use of sound: Gun shots, fizzes under water Explosions Sand spraying Metal pinging Trumpets screaming and shouting of soldiers. Waves crashing As subject falls under water sound becomes “slurred” and ringing begins. Audience:  The target audience for this film is of an older age, those who know about the war and those who are interested in history.

Large use of sounds to fit the scenes and add that extra feel to the film. An interesting opening which catches the viewers attention making them want to keep watching. 

Titles: The titles are seen right at the very beginning of the film, before anything else is shown. There presented right in the middle of the screen in a “Times New Roman” style font, in white and underlined with an all black background making it look very serious.

Camerawork: The camerawork at the beginning of the film tracks the old man making things seem very slow and makes the walk towards the grave even longer. On the beach the camera follows the soldiers push up towards the enemy in a shaky motion to make the bombing and the shooting is effecting the camera, making it seem even more realistic. When the subject falls under the water, the camera follows him jumping up and below the water to grab the effect the subject is going through.