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.