Corridor (Research)

Not sure if we think this is the right look, but we need to start thinking what we want the coridoor going into the basement to look like. This is one idea:

Music (Research)

One of my group members found some more music that we thought might work. This is the link to the music (it's the 3rd one down): http://www.freesfx.co.uk/sfx/scary

The only problem with this music is that it's too short for the length we need our opening sequence to be.

Looking at flashbacks (Research)

GROUP RESEARCH:


In our opening sequence we don't know whether to create two stories of the man, him in the room with the child, and also him with his wife who is actually dead. The use of flashbacks in Band of Brothers makes it clear that he is thinking about something else (the flashbacks) which is what we could do. This is just a possibility/idea.

Setting/Lighting for our opening sequence (Research)

We want to recreate the feel of a loft in the top of a house. I started to think of films that used similar settings and props that we want to use for our title sequence and I thought of the film 'Disturbia'. The film is based in a 'Crafts-man' style house. This type of house has a pointed roof so the loft at the top would look good as it would feel quite isolated and secretive.

I then looked at one of the previous student's work a few years back and how they recreated the space of a loft in the studio at my college. This is the music video:



The scenes of where the woman is in the darker, closed in space is the feel we wanted to create. As was done before, we know it is achievable; it was simply created by leaning two wooden planks against one-another to create the triangle roof shape which makes it look like a closed-in loft.
This is now one very possible idea for the look of our 'loft'.

I then started to look at the props and things within the scene for our opening sequence. We simply want the props: a camera, a tripod, a laptop, a phone and then a few folders/pens etc, but that's the basic props we need to include. We realised when doing our first draft for our storyboard that the timings of it wasn't long enough so we started to think of things we could include, which revolved around introducing more props such as the folders etc, but we don't want to just add in pointless things to add extra time as otherwise it's meaningless.

I looked at the film 'Disturbia' again and looked at the details within the boy's bedroom where he has his camera and stuff set up and started taking ideas from this setting. These are some of the images I found:

I like the idea of the look of this setting as it looks very set-up and secretive and has a lot of technical gadgets which we could use for the look of our setting, however as the 'Camera man' in our story has an OCD we can't make it look too messy, however we want our audience to get the idea that he has been watching this girl for a while. I like the look of the brown/dark colours and the TV's set up to the camera's as it looks really technical and busy. I also like the look of the crowded space which is being created by all the CD's and rubbish and bed/chairs taking up the room - it makes it feel like things are going on but at the same time it's his home and it's his space. It also creates that feeling that he's been there for a while and is like waiting for something.

The blinds are a really nice look as they feel like the room is being hidden away and because they're lined blinds (they're like bars) it feels really like trapped and it could make our character, if we used the blinds, look really anti-social and unknown/lonely which makes us think/the audience think he's a bit odd and creepy. The light behind the blinds and curtains creates a very darkened/yellow look which makes it look more sinister.  

Another thing my group discussed was lighting. At first we had this idea that it would be a single spotlight set up in the studio, just showing a profile of the room - nothing to exciting. We never see the characters face so we didn't know whether the spotlight would work well as it might highlight him more. Plus, of course we want to find out who this man is, but really in the opening sequence we want the audience to be indulged in what he's doing and what the space around him is for and because the space is used for a weird, creepy obsession we want to light this more darker and creepier.

Once looking through the photos of the film 'Disturbia', the lighting in it is darkened but natural. It allows us to highlight things within the room but at the same time not giving too much away. The lighting in 'Disturbia' works nicely as it looks quite shadowy and the light does look homely but at the same time kind of creepy. We then started to come up with the ideas that we could have perhaps a lamp or a light hanging from the top to create some more natural lighting but not too much light that it gives the character away. The yellowy lighting of the lamp in the third picture in 'Disturbia' looks quite sickly but natural and I think that really suits the atmosphere that's going on in the beginning of our opening sequence.

Music for Opening Sequence (Research)

CHRIS'S MUSIC RESEARCH:
Research of music for Thriller idea.

I have looked for sinister music to try to incorporate into our piece as non-diegetic sound. I looked broadly at some piano music as I feel this will fit into the sequence and allow it to flow seamlessly. These are some possibilities I have found.

 

This was my first thought; it is quite a sad tune but I thought it was more sinister than it actually was. This seems quite romantic which does fit with the flashbacks but will conjure completely different connotations of what the sequence is about and does not fit with the thriller genre.



This is the third song I found. It is slightly faster and more techno but is still somewhat sinister. The fluency fits our fast paced, quick shooting style. This, I think is almost perfect for the piece and will definitely direct the audience towards thinking this is sinister. It is a bit same-y however so I cannot deem this sort of music perfect.

These are just some ideas that I think could compliment the piece very well and aid fluency as well as building tension. I will take the ideas to the group and see how they feel about them.

'The Lovely Bones' basement scene (Research)

Again, this is just an idea. It has a lot of un-needed props in this scene, but the lighting in this scene is good and could perhaps suit our opening sequence for the basement.

Sound Effects (Research)

In the beginning of our opening, as we do not show the 'camera man', we need something to make sure we know we're following him. We want the opening to start on his feet, walking to the basement. To add some isolated/taunting feeling, we wanted to add some footsteps and creaky floor-board sound effects. This is some ideas we found.

Se7en Music (Research)

We liked the soundtrack to the opening of 'Seven'. It creates a weird atmosphere - it doesn't really tell you a lot and it sounds so odd and creepy that we don't really know what's going on. This music sets a particular mood but at the same time doesn't lead up to giving too much away. I think this type of sound would really support our opening.

'The Rock' film (Research)

This is a thriller one of my group members found. We like the setting/lighting in the part of the trailer where the man is being interrogated (44 seconds - 50 seconds & 1 minute 14 seconds - 1 minute 22 seconds).

The feel of these parts look as if it could be a basement. The lighting has blue-y colours and it looks cold and dark; we also liked it as it did feel very isolated and hidden.

Lighting (Research)

My group started to look at lighting ideas. We originally looked at single spotlights and different lighting positions. We then started to talk about wanting to have the lighting dimmed so that it is darker and more mysterious; for example, just having a single light bulb in the room, giving it that more naturalistic lighting, but the room still looking dimmed - just like in the title sequence 'Affliction'.

'Affliciton' title sequence (Research)

This is a thriller from previous years - we liked the look/setting in this opening sequence.

Plot/Synopsis - change within direction/story

With the research we had done about the 'loft' idea and the house design etc. previously, we actually started to question how we were going to film this girl if the idea was that the loft was to be blacked out and that he was meant to be filming her next door without being caught, even though he lived next to the house. We were also concerned that we were going into 'cliché' territory.

We spent one lesson on just mapping our actual story out and how we could suit the location and make more sense of it. We detailed our story a bit. To clarify, our story idea is:

The 'camera man' is working within a police force. In previous years, he was married to a woman. He had to take a shift one night and asked his friend to pop in and see her as she wasn't well; he never came to see her. That night the house set on fire accidently and the wife died in it. The friend of the 'camera man' was too ashamed to confront his friend in saying that he never came to her and never got in touch with him again - eventually moving away and starting a family. Years later, the 'camera man' finally finds his friend and takes his young daughter captive, threatening him and wishing for him to experience his pain.

The opening sequence still involves the 'camera man' setting up his camera and equipment but instead of setting it up to film this young girl across the road, he is setting it up to film her in his basement as he kidnaps her, so he can send it off to the dad and threaten him.

Final Storyboard

    

Kyle Cooper - 'Spider-Man' title sequence

'Spider-Man' being such a well-known superhero, being made into a film had to be so well captured. The opening to the film is brilliant. What I like most is the movement: Cooper has specifically designed the title sequence to bring the audience on a journey. We get a real sense of movement and travelling (one of Cooper's well known elements) and it really sets a quick pace as if it's like a race.

The colours look so slick, and the shapes and lines create the 'webbed' look, and this obviously relates very nicely. The title sequence looks really clean and slick. A lot of the titles look 3-D and we're taken around them and they're pulled apart to keep the audience interested in what new ideas are going to be brought in next. I think this sequence keeps an audience watching and it really does set up like an epic adventure. The use of colours obviously represent spider-man; they're deep and royal colours which makes the sequence look sharp.

Making the web feel 3-D is really clever as we feel like we're going through it and circling it all the time. The 'spider webs' always look really lean, thin and shiny so Cooper captures nicely the look of it - it actually makes it look really delicate.

Overall, I really like this title sequence. It captures a really essence of the up-coming story and actually helps the audience build up to what is going to happen as the sequence tells a story itself and helps take us on a journey.

Kyle Cooper - 'Twister' title sequence

This film is quite old, is one of Cooper's older title sequences made back in 1996. I chose this sequence to analyse because Cooper designed it with RGA (the original company he started off at).

Cooper’s design for this title sequence creates a very visual, moving, chunky, three-dimensional look for 'Twister' which exploits it's mid-nineties CGI to manipulate the letters as they materialize in the eye of the storm, disappearing all at once from the screen, in a dark’n’stormy flourish of meteorological drama. This piece of work truly shows elements of Cooper's work as he does like to peal away things for the screen make the move and twist and collapse.

I think the title sequence is really effective; it gives an iscolated feel with the colours and the idea that the letters are being pulled apart as if in a storm. I think it gives the opening a clear insight and also helps set up the film really well.
For a title sequence being made, going back 8 years... I think it was really cleverly done and it really does showcase some of Cooper's talents.

The title sequence for 'Twister': Twister title sequence - Watch the Titles

Kyle Cooper - 'Wimbledon' title sequence

Cooper made a title sequence for this film - it was made in 2004 and is classed as a 'romantic comedy'. Kyle Cooper is definitely not renowned for this title sequence as not a lot really happens. It doesn't really compare with a lot of his other really successful work such as the film 'Seven', and not a lot of people talked about it afterwards, however, it is still very clever and entertaining. It's so well executed making it eye-catching and interesting. I personally did like the sequence, but again wasn't so impressed as I was with his other work. I think it being a 'romantic comedy' film perhaps restricted him from using all his usual elements that he includes in a lot of his action packed/horror title sequences, so it's quite nice to see how he interpreted a different genre of film.



I think Cooper has successfully recreated and set the right atmosphere to start the film with - it also looks quite comical so it's already setting up some themes to the movie. It's very clever with timings and capturing reactions which sets off the movie well and the piece feels quite rhythmic; it certainly doesn't you make you feel uncomfortable, or make you feel to much is going on.

Kyle Cooper

 Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper is a modern designer of motion picture title sequence. He studied graphic design at Yale University and took his path from there. Earlier in his profession, he worked as a create director at R/GA which is an advertising agency. At this time, Kyle Cooper created the title sequence for the American crime film 'Se7en' (seven) which was in 1995 and this caused an uproar. His work on Seven inspired many young designers. Cooper then went on to do many more work for films/music videos and even commercials.

(This is a clip to an interview with Kyle Cooper and he talks about his work in the film 'Seven'. It's really interesting to see how he visualises his work and how he feels, from an audience's perspective, is what they want to see and how he wants to achieve this: http://www.watchthetitles.com/articles/00170-kyle_cooper_interview_pt_1_2. You can also click on all his different works on this website) 

Cooper co-founded 'Imaginary Forces' with Peter Frankfurt and Chip Houghton - this came out of the West Division of R/GA. As Cooper became more involved with the company for the business-side of things, he wanted to travel the route of designing. He left 'Imaginary Forces' and in 2003 he founded the creative agency Prologue.

This is some of his most well-known work (films) over the past 9 years:

Immortal Beloved (1994)

Braveheart (1995)

Seven (1995)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

Flubber (1997)

Mimic (1997)

Arlington Road (1999)

The Mummy (1999)

Zoolander (2001)

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001)

Spider-Man (2002)

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)

The New World (2005)

Superman Returns (2006)

Across the Universe (2007)

Iron Man (2008)

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Orphan (2009)

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

Tron: Legacy (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

The Walking Dead (2010)

Arthur (2011)

Cooper has also done commercials for: Apple, Canon and Coca Cola, as well as doing music videos for bands like 'The Black-eyed Peas'.

Cooper shows common elements and themes through his work. He likes to have a lot of movement in his work such as 360 views around objects, he also likes to build up and layer a lot of his work on screen and this looks effective due to the frame looking filled and built up so that it looks really interesting. Shapes and lines occur in a lot of his work which make it look clean and striking and again, very interesting. You can see how much time he spends on his work as it's so detailed and it's so visually appealing to an audience and this is why he is so popular and idolised because his work is so pleasing to viewers.

FACTS

• He claims his greatest influence in his choice of profession (i.e. title designer) is Stephen Frankfurt's opening title sequence for To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962.
• Cooper now oversees a ninety-person team.
• Andrea Codrington wrote a biography about him; the book called 'Kyle Cooper'. She claims that Kyle Cooper is an essential reading for anyone engaged with graphic design, film, and visual communication.

• He has been nominated 6 times for a Primetime Emmy and won one in 2006 shared with Hal Honigsberg for 'Outstanding Short Form Picture Editing'.

 Kyle Cooper's demo reel on youtube: 

'I Am Legend' title sequence analysis

When watching the title sequence for this film, analysing it, knowing the film itself was so well-done, the big acting names they have in it and the film industry who produced it - 'Warner Bros', I thought the title sequence was poor.

 

I thought it was a bad example from a big Hollywood film company because the titles were so badly placed - big names such as Will Smith and Emma Thompson could hardly be seen. They tried to place the names of actors in clever places but it just didn't work; you could hardly read the names as they blended in with background and they were in such small font. They placed the names in such irrelevant, awkward places that you sometimes can't even spot whether a name was being shown or not. In contrast to the actual film, the title sequence just looked tacky and it's such a shame as they probably could've done something more interesting and impressive.

'Don't Look Now' opening title sequence

So in today's lesson, we looked at another opening sequence and tried to identify what editing techniques were used in it and what was the meaning behind it. 'Don't Look Now' is a very good example when analysing editing because the genre is physcholocigical horror, meaning a lot of the story has to be conveyed through the use of edit as we can only show 'supernatural' features this way because it's obviously not real.

The sequence used a lot of 'match cuts'. This is where it looks as if one thing i.e an action of a character in the shot, is triggered by another action in a different shot but they link - whether it is obvious or not, the editor has done it purposely. The different shots are trying to convey the same meaning between them, even though they're usually in different places, they're are linked/related somehow. In this case, 'match cuts' were used to link what was happening outside was relating to what was happening inside. One example in this is where the girl outside throws the ball to her brother, and when she does it cuts to the dad, inside, throwing the cigarette box to his wife/the mother. These match cuts helped identify that the characters were linked and were family. 

A clever 'match cut' used was when after the liquid had spilt onto the photo, the red ink started to run across the picture, creating a shape, this then faded into the girls body shape when she is being picked up out of the water. They're both in the same colour as well - red. The red colour symbolises death as it looks similar to red, and red itself has connotations of: danger, hate etc. 

A lot of the 'match cuts' are used to trigger a lot of incidents, in this case, it setting up an idea one after another, getting worse and worse and it was as if the girl is getting nearer and nearer to her death; this is shown when: she is being shot again and again going through puddles after puddles, getting closer to the pond. Another example: when the father spills the glass over the picture, the girls ball falls into the pond. 

There is an edit where the brother and sister are outside, and the boys bike breaks so his face is towards the camera but his back his away from his sister. The boy is out of focus, whereas the girl is in focus. We see the boys eyeline looking down, so we can easily identify he is not aware of this sister behind him. This represents that the girl is the important character, and it also recreates the idea of 'depth of field' where it looks as though she is so lonely and vulnurable and there is not contact through them, again suggesting something is going to happen. This creates meaning that anything could happen to her as she is on herself. There a quite a few long shots through the sequence to create how the girl is distant just to keep reminding the audience that she is on herself, so that we feel more worried for her safety. 

The opening starts on a pond, the pond which the young girl drowns and dies in (but we find this out later in the sequence). The scene shows that it is raining, which instantly sets up the idea of pathetic fallacy: the weather reflecting the mood. Opening on the pond also suggests something symbolic about the it as well as we as an audience do not know where/why it's being filmed. The camera then zooms into the pond, closely, and then the title shows up. The title itself instants start to set up ideas of why we shouldn't 'be looking now', especially right after we have zoomed into something that doesn't contain a lot of eye catching attention. It is only shown for identification and knowledge.

From being shown the 'depth of field' and the 'match up' shots, we get a real sense of the girl being unprotected. The meaning created is that although the parents are not with the children, the dad has moments of realisation and feelings shown through close ups, however the mother has completely no realisation. In one shot, the mother has her back completely turned from the dad, showing she is distracted and throughout the sequence it becomes stupid that she has no concern or awareness towards any of the characters. This shot was created with a long pause/hold to express this meaning of her being uninterested. The way the shots are put together, the parents do not once give eye contact to each other which is unusual and slightly odd. This creates meaning that they, particularly the mum, have no interest in the situation inside the home or outside the house, even though the dad is acting slightly on edge and conscious.
 

Storyboarding - our first draft

In Friday's lesson my group started story-boarding our idea out. We started to discuss appropriate shots, length of shots and what we wanted to convey on camera.

Our total time length came to about 1 minute 10 seconds; this created a problem as we realised that roughly, the length of the total opening sequence needed to be around 2 minutes 30 seconds. The storyboard is our first draft, so this has enabled us to be aware of specific things. My group now knows that the length of the opening sequence needs to be longer and we can solve this by adding more things and changing timings for certain frame shots.

We also discussed with my media teacher whether the title to the film 'The Camera Man' was appropriate. This was because we came up with a problem that the title could suggest that the 'Camera Man' was perhaps working for the police in a case for example because the idea is that we do not know who he is, however, we want to convey that he is an obsessed stalker but not know why he is. We discussed that the name 'camera' suggested a more 'investigating' representation, however, we came up with a title name of 'Video Camera'; this name suggests it's less professional and more stalker-ish because 'video-ing' someone is slightly odd and more perverse which is what we want to show.

Lastly we talked about a good soundtrack to go with the representation of this perverted, obsessed/OCD man. We thought a non-diegetic sound of piano keys in the background would suit the piece well as it could help set quite an uncomfortable, eerie tone. This sound would not be very involving meaning that it would not be loud and pacey, it would set a slow, waiting pace which supported the man's actions and his OCD.

 (Page 1)

 (Page 2)

 (Page 3)

 (Page 4)

 (Page 5)

Our synopsis idea decision:

My group made a decision on what our final story idea was to be. We did go for 'The camera man' idea as we thought and planned what shots we wanted to do, use and what would work well. The setting/location could easily be done in the studio at my college, so this means we could focus a lot on what we want within the shot. We also covered that the idea was simplistic so that we could really put in effort in the work on screen rather than fussing over too complicated/busy story ideas.

First production meeting - narrowing ideas...

One idea was about a psycho path living next door to a family who moved away because of his weird attitude. The rest of the story then leads onto the idea of a new family moving in and who of which are completely unaware of who lives next door. The opening sequence idea was to have a car pulling in next door, supposedly meant to be the new family moving in, and the positioning of the camera is meant to be from the psycho's perspective. We analysed the negatives of how it would be hard to film somewhere where we could use two houses next to each other and to film from both houses - it wouldn't have been easy to keep asking neighbours to film from one house to another, and even if one house had said yes, it's neighbour might've said no.

One of my ideas was 'The terrorist' idea. This would've been hard as the opening sequence consisted of a lot of adults and a lot of action going on. It would've also been hard to film in an office that would provide my group to allow them to explore through all parts of the buildings as safety issues would start to occur.

We really, as a group, had to think of whether our ideas were reasonable because even though it may have been a fun or exciting idea, we could not put too much in the opening sequence, and most of the time, it probably wouldn't be reasonable to film because of location etc. One of the ideas included the location of Thailand, and we couldn't fly out to Thailand for one day of filming. It doesn't give enough context if you're not actually in Thailand - an audience want to view the location so they're familiar with where the characters are so we have to make it believable for them. If you were to recreate the idea of being in Thailand but were in England, you wouldn't create that same context.

Finally, my group managed to agree on two final ideas. These ideas were: 1. My idea - 'The letter' idea, which was about a letter, worth a lot of money, to be passed on for a young girl. The opening sequence would've consisted of a group of criminals who trash the girls house to try and find the letter, and then later on revealing the dead mother, but it not being revealed of who she is as we have no information, besides the fact that the house being trashed is probably hers. 2. Chris' idea - 'The Camera Man' idea, a story about a man who has an obsession with photographing one of his neighbours. He captures her every day movement and studies it. The idea is that woman being photographed finds the website with the photos of her on, and she is trying to trace who it is. We are never shown 'the camera man's' face. The opening sequence would be simplistic of the man setting up his camera, his website, his notes and pictures. Him scurrying through papers, writing notes, filing notes and sticking them up on his wall etc.

With our final 2 ideas in our heads, we really had to discuss and create pros and cons for each idea, so we knew that we were to pick the right one. At the end of my lesson, were still indecisive of which idea to proceed in. This was because we really had to consider both ideas.

'The Camera Man' had pros of: it was simpler, and more easier to achieve, precise in what we wanted from it (shots, angles, editing), the fact it was original, and because it was a more simplistic idea, it would be more achievable in the camera/editing etc. rather than getting to caught up in the story at the beginning, we only needed one actor and we had quite a few prop ideas we could experiment with. It's cons then were: maybe it would be too simplistic, making it boring, and if whether when filming it, would there be enough to film? Would we attract an audience?

'The Letter' had pros of: it would be more fun and involving because of the idea of trashing a house, there could be loads of things within the mise en scene to experiment and to have fun with, it would make the opening sequence quite punchy and get right into the mood and action of the story. It's pros could then back up questions like: would it be too detailed? Would it be the case that it would be too much work, especially if when you shot a bit, whether you could shot it again because it was too hard to recreate the set of how it was before and lastly, would we be able to find a location/house that was suitable to the characters context and whether it would actually be possible to trash the place? (haha)

At the end of the lesson, as I said, we were still undecided but our direction, as a team, seems to believe the possibilities of 'The Camera Man' idea would be more achievable to do.

Being put into groups!

We were divided into groups done by pulling names out of a hat. In my group it is: (me), Chris, Laura and Phoebe. I was really pleased with my group - I think we will work well together.

Today, we got into our groups and discussed the synopsis ideas we had for our filming. My group go down to 8 interesting narratives that we thought would be good; we then had to work out whether these narratives were too complex, also considering the idea of what would be an appropriate opening sequence as well.

My thriller ideas:

In my media lesson on Friday, I was put into my media group for our filming we do in January for part of our exam.

We had to come prepared to the lesson with a few, simple story ideas that we could film a possible opening sequence to. My ideas were:

1.  STORY: A high-up business man gets snatched when on the way back from work. He is taken to a secret location where he is told his wife is a highly wanted criminal and she is only with him for his money and his future weaponry ideas which she will steal for a highly wanted (criminal) company she is working for. The boss will take the stolen ideas to generate some dominating/over-ruling plan to take over New York.

OPENING SEQUENCE: The opening sequence will be the man walking back, in an evening, from work where he is snatched and driven away. It will then cut to him being revealed to a secret service company who tell him about his wife’s future plans. The character is at first confused, but is then shown evidence which draws his attention. The sequence is then left on a cliff-hanger when a document is handed to him and we want to know whether he takes a position in the service to help find the company.

 2.  STORY: A particular letter which is to be passed on. The letter holds a document which is signed by a very wealthy man. The letter is worth a lot of money and the idea is that a mother is to have it exchanged for a lot of money – her husband died from a nasty attack and she wants the money for her child and they rightfully own the money. A group of criminals are trying to get hold of the money for their boss who worked with the dead husband and supposedly killed him off. The Boss wants the money to pay off a debt in which he has been threatened with death if he does not pay it off by a particular date. The man who hides and aids the girl throughout the film also worked for the dead husband and he wants to help his family as the father was a good man and it was assigned to him by the mother to look after the daughter if anything happened to her.

OPENING SEQUENCE: The opening sequence will open on a mother who is killed in an attack in her own home by a group of criminals who are after a particular message which she is holding on to pass on to someone. The criminals who killed the mother are scurrying through the house to find this letter. The mothers daughter comes through the door calling for her mum, when the criminals realize someone has walked in… they go searching for the noise but then someone pulls back the girl and hides her in a closet. The criminals leave and we’re shown the man holding onto the girl in the closet and we’re left to wonder who this person is – good or bad?

 3.   STORY: A terrorist is set up in a work office building in New York which is big (as in size of place) but not well known enough to know much about the company. The place is patrolled by criminals who are working for the terrorist and they kill off, in their case, all the business men/women working there. The terrorist sends out random broadcasts with threats… but no one knows where he is actually located. However 3 office members manage to hide during the killing of their work mates and they need to try and get out of the office without being found so they can locate the terrorist and get him captured.  

OPENING SEQUENCE: The opening sequence will be a quiet office, with men and women working hard away. Suddenly a group of terrorists burst in and have a shoot down. We see lots of deaths and injuries and we are then shown the main terrorist being set up and sat down surrounded by death. We are then shown a brief glimpse of 3 office workers stuck in an air vent, panicking.

My favourite idea was number 2, but when sharing the idea with the class, we discussed and interpreted the opening sequence idea and different ways we could present it without giving to much away/or having to much going on. We decided, that if my group were to use my idea, the opening sequence would have to have less going on. It would simply be: the group of criminals scouring through the house, ripping apart pillows, pulling curtains, pushing over wardrobes... searching the entire house. This using lots of quick different angle shots of their boots, and their hands pulling things apart. The mother, later on in the sequence, would then be shown, dead, on the floor, but as it would be at the end, this would then allow the audience to start thinking what her importance might be - leaving them on a hanger.

Analysing sound - 'Kill Bill' scene

In my lesson today we watched a clip from the movie 'Kill Bill' to analyse some sound techniques. The scene we analysed is when Uma Thurman gets buried. This scene relies on music rather than dialogue.

The sound indicates what is actually happening in the scene, as for a period of time, the screen is mainly black and the music is telling us what is happening. The audience relies on information aurally rather than visually. First of all, the scene begins with Uma Thurman being nailed into a coffin, being 'buried alive'. The light gets dimmer and dimmer as the coffin is nailed in until it completely traps the light causing a blackout on screen.

There is first of all 'diegetic' noise of the character heavily breathing creating context that she is in-trapped and is having a panic attack. This creates a sense of panic and un-comfort to the audience and this is all through just the character creating some noise. This noise is then built up with sound effects such as the noise of cranes and movement of the coffin. Again, there is no visualisation telling us that the coffin is moving, however, we instantly know this is what is happening. The noises are extremely uncomfortable and because we cannot see where the coffin is being lead to, we do not know what to expect and that's why the noises come as such a shock and panic. I could instantly signify the scraping of the coffin and the bleeping of the crane, and on top of these noises were the heavy/unsettling breathing from the character which added to the whole situation.


There is then a sudden drop of the coffin and complete silence occurs. This is very unusual on screen to have silence and a black-out, but it works in the situation as it builds the tension. It leaves a pause to make the audience wonder what is going to happen next. After the few second silence, a single drop of something falls onto the coffin but it is easily identified and this is for a reason. All of a sudden, a massive clump of dirt falls onto the coffin which breaks through the silence and makes us unsettled all over again. The noise is harsh and echo's which is very disturbing and because we know she is trapped it gives an over all noise barrier of so many unsettling things happening. Throughout this clip I struggled to watch it without not covering parts of my face because it was so nerving to hear. The sounds are also represented from her point of view, so this makes it the audiences point of view, and to only be hearing noises which are full on and unsettling it makes it harder to sit and just listen to them as we know what situation the character is in.

 

 

The noises of the dirt being shovelled onto the coffin become dimmer and dimmer and more muted showing that she is further and further in the ground as the noise becomes muffled and her breathing becomes muffled creating a sense of in-closure and panic. The end of this scene is then broken with the character flashing on and off her flashlight, this gives the audience a quick insight into how she is being shown and how she has/is reacting. To allow us to see the character who's panic-y breathing we have been following for the past couple of minutes or so is slightly reassuring as we want know she is ok.

Connotation/Denotation & Semiology:

Denotation is when you give a name to something with a particular meaning.
Connotation is using a name or a label to which our audience has used before we evoke a meaning for it/our audience (what we know it does even if it is conveyed differently in a film) 

Some examples of Denotation and Connotation would be:

MARILYN MONROE - her name is a Denotation her name itself suggests who she is. 
Connotation: movie star, hollywood, death, fame, beauty, drugs... etc.

A KNIFE
Denotation: implies a domestic implement designed for cutting and used in the kitchen. 
Connotation: even though we know it's real purpose, if it was placed in say a 'horror film', the idea of the knife could be used as a weapon of violence or murder.

We give labels to things in order to classify them, to make clearer the meaning we want to convey...

SEMIOLOGY:

Semiology comes from the word 'semiotics'. Semiotics means: the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviour. So semiology is the study of signs and sign processes, indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. However, as different from linguistics, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems.

What is a thriller...?

Thriller is a wide genre of literature, film, and television programming that uses suspense/ tension/excitement/thrill as its main conventions. Thrillers heavily control how the viewer is feeling as they have such a massive impact on them resulting to the audience giving such a strong reaction - shock. Thrillers use a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, surprise, anxiety and terror. Films of this genre tend to be adrenaline-rushing and fast-paced.

The whole idea of a thriller is to keep the audience on 'the edge of their seats' as the narrative builds and builds to its climax. Tension is usually built when something is revealed to the audience; for instance: one of the characters being placed in a situation where, perhaps, it's quite menacing or mysterious, it could be a situation where the character has to escape. Life itself is threatened because the principal character is put in a situation which at the time, seems impossible. 

Thrillers can broaden so widely to what can be 'classed' as a thriller. Thrillers have sub-genres as a thriller film can be so widely defined - this is called a 'hybrid'. The main sub-genres within a thriller would be:

1. Action
Example: 'UNKOWN'





















2. Adventure
Example: 'INDIANA JONES'

3. Sci-fi
Example: 'ALIEN'

4. Crime
Example: 'DISTURBIA'





















5. Western
Example: 'COWBOYS AND ALIENS'


















( This film is a good example of sub-genre, it is a western film but it also collaborates with the genre of 'sci-fi')

6. Romantic/Comedy
Example: 'DAY AND KNIGHT'





















7. Supernatural
Example: 'THE OTHERS'

8. Political
Example: 'V FOR VENDETTA'



















Genre is so important to not only an audience but also institutions. It is important to an audience because: it identifies to the audience what it is about, and then helps the audience decide whether this film would appeal to them because of what context it comes under. To institutions it is important as they can categorize their film to a particular genre, and then advertise it to particularly appeal to a certain audience.

Completed prelim task

I finished editing my prelim today. I was really pleased with the final edit, it looked really clean and all the shots fitted in really well with each other. I added in sound to the film as it added a humorous factor to it and it actually made the film more interesting. It came to about roughly 40 seconds in the end and this included using all the appropriate shots.

Our coursework task defined...

This is my exam brief for my coursework task, this coursework is the Thrillers we will be filming:

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.

Account of prelim post production:

Today we went to the editing suite for the first time and used final cut to edit our prelims.

This lesson, I experienced my first time using Final Cut Pro. First of all I learnt how to set it up, the instructions were:

 

> productions

> prelims

> Adam

> find groups work (Lauren, Laura, Chris, Toby)

> click on the clog

> check out

> choose location

> desktop

> keep media with project

> check out

> groups name (should be on desktop) - click on it

Then, 'file new bin', create a 'rush bin', then press 'apple s' and 'apple q' - this saves the work.

  

We mainly did the cutting and positioning of film clips today, we didn't manage to edit out or put in sound but we will be doing that next week. I also learnt how to set up a 'Log bin' and a 'Rush bin'. The Rush bin held all my shots in, and the Log bin held my shots but specific shots that I wanted to use in my prelim so that it made easier to just get it from a shorter list rather than going through the whole Rush bin.

 

I learnt how to set up final cut, but most importantly, I learnt how to edit the film clips. I learnt how to cut the clips shorter and how to position the clips, so that when it cut from one angle to another, it looked clean and it looked natural. 

As we had to film lots of different angles of the scene, it made editing so much more fun as we had more angles to experiment with. All the filming worked well and it was really easy managing to cut back and forth from wide angle shots, to close ups, to over the shoulders. All the angles worked well and they looked really effective on screen. When finishing editing, the film looked so conversational and normal and it was really pleasing to watch.

I managed to use a good variation of angles which made the sequence so much more interesting. 

I learnt how to cut bits efficiently and quickly, so bits that I had filmed with both vital and boring bits in, I could cut and alter which was easier.