Filming Experience

After we had taken out our camera, after school on Friday 4th December, we went straight to the Croydon lookout point that took us longer than we expected to find. We were in quite a rush because we wanted to get there before it got dark. Luckily we found it just in time and set up the tripod and camera for an extreme long shot of Jake, the actor, sitting on the edge of a wall looking over London. We really liked how the shot turned out because you could see very far across the wall and it was the perfect atmosphere for the beginning of our film.

We used the focus and zoom buttons on the camera to get three different shots of Jake sitting on the wall, one close up, one long shot and one extreme long shot. Another thing that added to the realness of the shot was the fact that birds were flying pass which added a nice effect.

Our next shot was a pan of the landscape view across London and then coming back to Jake sitting on the wall. This had to be shot a couple of times because we couldn't decide the speed of the pan, the first one we did was too fast, then too slow but we finally got the perfect shot in the end. Then we did a close up of Jakes face but we didn't want the camera to see his whole face to make it more mysterious and make the audience want to know who the boy is.

The next shot was Jake pulling a box of matches out of his pocket. We used an extreme close up by using the zoom button on the camera that only needed one quick shot.

Storyboard

Production Schedual

For our opening sequence we will need to film in four separate locations. The locations are a police interview room, Starbucks, the female characters alley to her house and the top of a hill in Croydon.

We will film the police interview room shots during school time as we can stay within the school site and find a basic room to convert into a police interview area. This is our best believable attempt of making a police interview room, because we do not know of any other buildings we can gain access too that contain suitable rooms or gain entry to a real police station. Therefore we will film these shots during our media lesson on Wednesday 2nd December. Luckily lighting in this scene is not an issue, because if there is a lack of sunlight in the room we can effortlessly turn a light switch on. Consequently we filmed as the sun was setting from about 2-4pm.

For the Starbucks shots we shall film these the same day we will film the scene of the boy on the hill. This will be beneficial to us because the whether conditions needed are roughly the same for both scenes so we do not need to make two trips. These conditions will need to preferably be not too wet. There also needs to be a fair amount of sunlight available as the scenes are to be shot during the day in the afternoon-ish late morning time. Subsequently we will film these shots on Friday 4th December, between 1-4pm.

For the last shot, of the boy and the girl walking down the alley way outside the girl's house, we need the conditions to be sun setting/dark so it gives the effect that the characters are going to the girl's house after a day out. For this location we shall use my own Nan's house. This is because this property is the house that most looks like the home for students or young persons to be living at that our group knows of. We shall film this Tuesday 7th December after school time between 3-6pm.

Prop List

The props we will be using are very basic and easy to come by.

Interview Room

In the interview room we will need and table and three chairs. This is to show that people we in here recently. We will also need a tape player to play the tape that will be hear over the top of our entire film, and we will also need a cup of coffee spilt over and a few papers, this is to show an interview has already taken place.

The Lookout Point

At the lookout point the main prop we will need will be the box of matches. This is because the matches play a key role throughout the film, as the boys tick is lighting matches over and over again when he is nervous. We will have him smoking as this gives the impression that he doesn't care about his health and give him a bad guy image in the film.

The Coffee Shop

In the coffee shop we won't be using any props, as we don't want to divert concentration from the main action of the two meeting and getting on with one another.

Taking the girl home

Again we won't use any props in this shot as we want to show the bond between the two of them growing and becoming stronger as she invites him into her house.

Character Information

The Boy

The boy is the main character in our film, aged 16 and with dark hair.

He is an odd character and has an obsession with lighting matches.

He is the only character that we see properly but we never actually see his face, this adds suspence as we never discover his true identity.

Played by Jake.

The Girl

The girl plays a very small but vital role, she is the boys friend and she speaks on the voice over throughout the film.

She is also aged 16 and with long blonde hair.

Played by Ellen.

Detail On Target Audience

Our thriller film is going to be a psychological thriller, following the story of a mentally ill young man. Our opening sequence is therefore aimed at mainly young women, late teenagers and especially young men. This film will also aim at older adults, but mainly younger people due to the main characters being involved are of the rough same age.

Men will be targeted more than women because the film will feature some violence throughout and this appeals more to men generally than it does to women. Also most of the characters included in this film will be male, therefore the film becomes quite a manly film.

Location Information

We are using a few different locations in our film, this is to enhance impact so the audience can take in the surroundings and see how it blends in with the mood of the shot.

Boy On The Hill

The location for this is going to be in croydon, in the middle of a wooded area just next to coombe lane tram stop, called "the lookout point." This place has a large concrete-wall which can be sat on, in front of it is a layout of the whole of London, and surrounding it is wooded areas on either side. We chose this place as it is easy to get to, has a very god view and is quite quiet, so we can film without any interruptions.

Flash Backs

For the flash backs we are using two locations.

The first will starbucks in croydon high street. We picked this location for the exact opposite reason that we did the woods. There will be lots of people walking around and traffic, this shows that they are in a busy area with lots of people, and it makes it seem like the audience are just a person watching them from the other side of a road. The only problem we may have with this is filming in public, meaning we will need special permission from the coffee shop owner. if this doesn't work we are going to have to film somewhere else or film our few seconds and then move on.

Our next flash back will be at jakes Nan's house, we chose this because it is easy to get to and the house it is quite small, making it easier to film. also we know the owner, meaning we can actually use their house.

The Interview Room

The interview room we are going to use isn't actually going to be a police room, as we aren't allowed to film inside of one. Instead what we are going to do is black out windows in a room with dark walls and set up two chairs and a desk in a corner, we are then not going to film anything outside of the corner. this is going to be filmed in one of our practice rooms as it is easy to access.

Shot List

Shot 1: black screen, cassette button pressed, interview starts as the only background sound.

Shot 2: CU of cassette playing. On a table

Shot 3: MS of cassette playing and a coffee cup on a table, with two empty chairs in a interview room.

Shot 4: MS of the back of a boy, hood up, with the whole of London in front of him, woods surrounding him.

Shot 5: CU plan shot of London, then panning across to the side of the boys face his hood up.

Shot 5: LS of boy and girl sitting in a coffee shop.

Shot 6: 2 SHOT of the boy and girl chatting in the coffee shop.

Shot 7: CU side of the boy’s head, takes a pull of a cigarette then breaths it out.

Shot 8: BCU high angle of coffee trickling around a table to the edge.

Shot 9: BCU coffee dripping off the side of the table.

Shot 10: LS of boy and girl walking down a street, they then pause in front of a house and the girl walks in first followed by the boy, the door then slams.

Shot 11: CU of fan blowing and turning, with the paper attached.

Shot 12: OTS shot with no people !!!

Shot 13: BCU of boy getting a box of matches out of his pocket

Shot 14: LS of girl in café on her own in same stance as last time and same time of day.

Shot 15: MS of girl looking worried from outside.

Shot 16: CU of boy lighting a match, match is then followed up and you can see the bottom of the boys mouth. The boy the smiles and puts the match out with his fingers.

Last Years Work

Passion Productions from BDC on Vimeo.

My favorite film from last years students is 'Passion Productions'. I really like the way they captured the different shots at the beginning, i think it gave a good creepy feel, especially with the music in the background. For my thriller film I want to be able to create a spooky effect too and this is similar to the style I would like to work on. I also like the fact the shots were in black and white, this made it different to other films that have filmed in color, this inspired me to maybe use that effect in my film.

Thriller Actors

Brad Pitt

Full name: William Bradley 'Brad' Pitt

Known as an American actor and film producer, and is also known to be one of the worlds best looking men! 

Pitt has been in many films and has received two Academy Award nominations and four golden globe nominations, winning one.

He has starred in the thriller 'Se7en' which I analyzed previously and Oceans Eleven and Twelve, which are crime thriller, Oceans Eleven also being one of my favourite films. 

Sub-Genres

Spy Thrillers

e.g. The Bourne Identity

Spy thrillers are based around a hero/ heroine who is working for the government and has to violently take action and protect the people of their country (for example terrorist attacks).

Conspiracy Thrillers

e.g. JFK

When a hero/ heroine is against a large group of powerful people who are the enemy on their own.

Psychological Thrillers

e.g. The Talented Mr Ripley

When the two enemies are fighting emotionally and mentally rather than physically. 

Crime Thrillers

e.g. The Godfather

Usually concentrates on a group of criminals and their failed crimes or sucessful crimes for example, murders, robberies, chases. 

The 180 Rule

The 180 rule is an important thing that I need to take into consideration for future filming I will be doing to ensure that it looks professional. It ensures that when filming two characters, they will always be on the right side of each other. The main idea of it is to not cross over the imaginary axis (the crossing line), as shown in this picture. If you do cross over the axis, then the new shot from the opposite side will be called the reverse angle.  

Opening Sequence To Se7en

The other thriller film we watched in our lesson was 'Se7en' which is a film starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. It is a thriller about two police officers, Morgan Freeman who is about to retire and Brad Pitt who is going to be his 'side kick' in the case they have to solve.

The film had scary, confusing images during the opening credits so it made me think that the film was going to be a horror film or similar to the film 'Saw'. The music over the opening credits had screaming and scratching noises which created a creepy sound, enhancing the mysteriousness of the images being shown on the camera. The titles were highly edited and looked as if it was a detectives writing- as detectives take notes. The titles went on for about two minutes which is a long time for the opening credits, this builds up tension and the longer it goes on for, the more the audience wants to know what is going on.

Shots and Movement

The first shot in the film looks like there is someone watching Morgan Freeman in his apartment and the camera switches through lots of different angles. For example there is one point that is an 'over the shoulder' shot, when he is looking into the mirror. Then, when they are walking down the road, the camera is at a low angle, which makes both of the actors look powerful and important. The camera is also using 'tracking' to follow them down the road during their conversation. 

Generic Themes

Morgan Freeman is portrayed to be the dominant character out of the two of them. You can see this because of the way Brad Pitt is shown in the film. For example when they are walking down the road talking, Brad Pitt keeps getting pushed out of the way where as Morgan Freeman walks down the road with nothing in his way, making Pitt look less important than him even in society. 

Although Freeman is portrayed important and dominant, we also see him looking quite lonely in the first scene. He lives in his apartment that is dark and dreary with a single bed, implying he doesn't have a wife or a family, there aren't any pictures around his apartment either. You could say he sees himself as an outsider and doesn't work well with other people, he shows this by being quite cold to Pitt when he first meets him. 

Sound

The title scene has loud music in the background with bizarre noises, making a thick sound that is opposite to the scenes. There is rain throughout the first scenes and no music, creating a hollow feel, not very happy. When Freeman is in his apartment you can hear the speaking from flats around him, making it very realistic and natural but also dark and dull. 

Mis-en-scene

The way that Freeman puts on his tie at the beginning of the film shows his neatness and organisation. For example how everything is laid out for him and his bed is neatly made etc. It all adds to the loneliness and dull life he is portrayed to lead.

Opening Sequence To Momento

We watched the opening sequence of the Thriller film 'Memento'. I enjoyed it because it felt mysterious and made me really think about what was going on. I like this in a Thriller film because it adds suspense and keeps the audience at the edge of their seats, this is something I want to come across in my film when we make a Thriller.

Starting with the Titles...

I liked the effect of the blue text on the black background, I think it stood out well to the audience. They used blue for the text which is a 'cold' color that creates the right mood for a thriller. The text was big, bold and in the centre of the screen which makes it easier to read. The music in the background added to the mood as it was mysterious and eeary. 

Shots and Movement

After looking at different shots with my class, it made me notice them a lot more whilst watching it. Before, I would watch films and pay attention to the plot or the actors, but it is very interesting when you concentrate on how it was actually filmed. An extreme close up is the first shot used in the film, which is of a polaroid photograph. The polaroid keeps gradually changing; this made me intregued to find out what the photograph was showing. It looked like a crime scene because of the red blood colors, this built suspense and felt very intense because of how long the camera concentrated on it.

The camera stays on the shot of the polariod for a long time in the beginning and doesn't change for at least a minute, it is a POV shot which means from a persons point of view, as if someone was looking down at the photo changing. When the camera changes to be focused on the actor,  the camera focuses on him taking a picture without showing his face, making the audience want to know who it is. Then the camera slowly starts to look up at him, which makes him look powerful. Soon after, he looks like a victim which is when the camera is looking down at him from a birds eye view. This shows how important the shots are during a film because it helps portray how the character should be seen by the audience. 

Genetic Themes

By starting the film with a murder scene makes the first scene interesting for the audience and is  a good start to a thriller film. It keeps the audience interested in what is going on.

Sound 

The music over the titles created a mysterious feel to the film, using strings in an orchestra, building up the suspense. When the polaroid comes into view and he starts shaking it, they are using diagetic and non-diagetic sound at the same time. The speech over the first scene, non diagetic, was as if it was his thoughts which was effective instead of having him talk into the camera. The sounds are viteral which means realistic, for example when he shakes the keys. 

Mis-en-scene

The contrast of black and white and color was effective and made the shots more interesting. The clothes they are wearing are normal so they look average and nothing special, which makes it look realistic. 

Prelim Task

This is what we made for our prelim task. I was in a group with Mattie and Shanice. We were given one HD camera per group and a tripod to film with and were allowed to go anywhere within the school grounds. 

We were given instructions on what the film had to include, for example an over the shoulder shot. Before we thought of what the plot was in the film we noted down what the criteria we needed to film was. This had to be filming someone opening a door, two people havng a conversation, with a response from both actors and then finishing with an appropriate ending. 

We thought about making a comedy, but decided that a sad film wold work better with the shot types we had to do (when I was upset, a good over the shoulder shot would be talking to Shanice about what the problem was) this worked well in our film. 

We wanted an extreme close up of Shanice texting at the beginning so that the audience could read what was being said. We thought it would be effective to have three extreme close up shots of her texting, putting the phone in her pocket and then opening the door because it makes the audience want to know who it is that is holding the phone, as you can't see Shanice's face in the extreme close up shots.

When we watched the film back, we decided that we should have used the tripod a lot more, we did a lot of the filming hand held which isn't as professional and doesn't look good compared to when the camera is on a tripod. I think we could have chosen more interesting scenery as it is quite boring where we have filmed it.

When we were editing the film we decided to put music in the background that brought a bit of humor to the film because we thought this worked best with the plot. We had to cut and paste the bits that we wanted in our films which was easier than I thought it would be. I enjoyed editing the film and putting music in the background because it makes such a difference to the end product. 

Introduction to thriller codes and conventions

To create a successful thriller movie, there are some key things that make a thriller film interesting and exciting! We brain-stormed ideas of a thriller in our lesson and came up with many words and descriptions that describe a Thriller. Some examples are 'climax', 'flashbacks', 'cliff hangers', 'tense atmosphere' and 'mystery'. Thrillers almost always have a villain and then a hero, concentrating mainly on men but women are also present in many thriller films. Thrillers are made to interest the audience and keep them watching, eager to find out what will happen next, this could be a threat that a character is going to die and how they survive which is a very popular plot to base a thriller about.  

As an introduction to filming and creating a plot, we were given 45 minutes to film 'A Journey'. In my group I was with Mattie and Jake, luckily we had Jake in our group who is from the theatre strand so he could act in our film. We felt very happy with our film because it had a funny plot that made the audience wonder what was going on, making it much more interesting.

We used different camera angles to change the perception from being in just one place. We used lots of different places to film so that it would bring attention to the film being about a journey. The plot of our film was quite silly and strange, but we thought it worked well with the title and could include many shot angles in it.

Introduction to the Production Brief

The first lesson involved looking at different types of camera shots that will incorporate in our filming during the rest of the year. We researched them and found photographs of examples of the shots, here is an example of a medium long shot MLS:

We were then given a list of different camera movements that we had to find descriptions of. After looking at the different types of shots it reminded me of films I have seen previously and the great effect a camera shot can have on certain scenes. A movement that is used a lot is panning, this is when the top of the camera, not the tripod, is moving from left to right. Having looking at these different techniques it encouraged me to use them in films that I will be making in the future instead of filming it all the same, e.g. handheld.

Introduction

Hey i'm Ellen, i'm from the Music strand at the Brit School.

Having starting media, i'm really excited to start filming with the people in my class and working on projects together. I enjoy making films with my friends on holiday and editing them on my mac at home.

My favourite genre of films are comedys, because I love to have a good laugh! The best film in my opinion has to be a film called 'Snatch', with Brad Pitt who strangely enough has an irish accent in it! And was written by Guy Ritchie.

Having never done Media before, i'm looking forward to using the high-tech cameras to create a really exciting thriller film that captures the viewers attention and entertains them as well.