Subject 16 - Our Thriller

Role and Influence..

Having made a significant influence on the editing process i have decided to create a blog in the role i have played so far.

My primary role in our group has been director of editing at this stage in the project. As our group did the rough editing, sequencing our material and letting their skills develop as editors, i watched and assissted them where needed, though little guidance was needed after the basic skills were established, just help with sequencing the material was needed.

Now that basic editing has finished i have stepped in to help refine and dvelop our product into a professional looking piece, with the guidance recieved from Amar and utilising his thoughts and suggestions to help our product gain full marks. This has included colour corrections, changing the saturations of shots and adjusting brightness and contrast to create a stylised piece that will define our product. There is still titles and sound to finish, however as of today (9/03/11) the sound should be finished and will be ready to add to our product tomorrow.
 

Amar's usefull feedback on our editing within our opening sequence production.

Amar came over to our group and gave us useful feedback from our opening sequence which we will now mention.

• Amar in his ultimate wisdom has decided that the characters within our opening sequence are difficult to perceive and that the relationship between the two characters is hard to establish. 

• Amar believes that are production is lacking in titles during the white noise parts of our opening sequence.

• Amar also mentioned that we could add more forest like scenes earlier on to set the scene right at the start instead of leading the viewing audience into misleading environment. 

• Another feature Amar suggested we could add to our production is an intense sound towards the end of our sequence to add to the thriller theme. 

• The last thing Amar said we should change in our production is that the colour in some scenes is very bland and could do with more drama, and so he suggests we alter the colours to make them more bold and add different layers to the colours. 

We owe many thanks to Amar for his wisdom. xx

Rough Cut.

What We Learnt From Amar

Amar came and talked us through a presentation that divulged into the stages of preparing for a film shoot. His presentation was very insightful and has helped us prepare for our own shoot.

Script: Amar talked about the need for a script so we know what is happening in the scene. As a group we constructed a script to guide us and know the exact dialogue and action that is needed in our scene.

Setting The Scene: Amar suggested to us that we do a walk-through of our location as this would help us to get used to our area and identify any scripting problems. We chose not to do this though as we are filming in college premises and we are already widely familiar with its surroundings.

Location Recce: This is another of Amar's processes that we adopted. A location recce is an in-depth process that is similar to "setting the scene" though in a location recce the area is explored in more detail. this includes potential hazards, activity in the area, ambient sounds, lighting and any other potential things that could create flaws in our project. When we did ours we were careful to note all potential problems and how to overcome them.

Digital Storyboard: We also adopted this stage from Amar's planning also. This helps us to visualise what our final product will look like combines with the location recce.

Shot List: We also constructed a shot list, though it wasn't as detailed as Amar suggested. We didn't feel the need to create a fully detailed shot list, just something simple so we could combine it with our storyboard and keep track of what we need to do.

Digital Storyboard

Script

*A TELEPHONE RINGS. A crackle of white noise and a close-up of a formally dressed man answers the phone*

Government Official 1 (GV1) : Hello?

*a crackle of white noise and the shot changes to another smartly dressed man*

Governent Official 2 (GV2): Sir, we have a problem..

*another crackle of white noise and scene changes back to GV1, close up of the lips*

GV1: Please tell me this isn't going to comprimise the experiment. 

*shot changes again to GV2 sitting, facing away from the camera*

GV2: Well..  subject 16.. she's.. *white noise crackle and scene switches to a girl standing in forest*

GV1: DON'T GIVE ME THAT! YOU BETTER NOT BE ABOUT TO TELL ME WHAT I THINK YOU'RE ABOUT TO TELL ME. 

*crackle of white noise as scene changes back to a close up of GV1's left eye*

GV1: This is both our jobs on the line here. Expose me and i'll bring you down too.

*scene changes to GV2*

GV2: Sir, i can assure you, the White House, the public, they won't know. 

GV2: YOU BETTER HOPE THEY WON'T.

*crackle of white noise as scene changes to girl again*

GV1: She's an assent. get her. bring her to me. i need to see what the situation is. 

*Scene of girl changes to a different camerashot*

GV2: But Sir, she's too unstable. she's dangerous.

GV1: I DON'T CARE. i must see her, we have to see that this won't threaten the country. threaten us.. 

*Crackle of white noise as scene changes, close up of GV1's eyes*

GV2: But sir..

GV1: No buts. bring her.

*crackle of white noise as the scene changes back to subject 16 a close up and a sinister look*

GV1: Oh, and Mark, be careful

*sound of phone being put down as a white noise and scene ends*

Storyboard/Shotlist

Storyboard

Shotlist

Shooting Shedule

Thursday 10th: Office Scene with Government Official 2/1 depending on attendance

Monday 14th: Office Scene with Government Official 1/2 depending on attendance

Wednesday 16th: Forest Scene with Subject 16

Thursday 17th: left open in case of attendance issues.

Planning Our Thriller: Initial ideas..

Sub-Genre:
Political Thriller; conventions of political thriller are that stylistically it is similar to regular thriller films, however, the narrative is based around the government and corruption. The narrative is usually based around the struggle for power or the threat of loss of power or lack of trust being established.


Narrative:
Our story will be based around an illegal, controversial government experiment that has gone wrong and a subject has accidentally been released after being under quarantine due to an unstable mental condition.

The first two minutes will involve a telephone conversation between two highly appointed government officials, discussing the experiment. The conversation will be vague, only dropping small hints to what they  are talking about. The camera shots will be from the rear of he actors so faces are disguised, retaining a sense of mystery and intrigue.
During the conversation the scene will switch occasionally to show the girl wandering through a forested area, head down in a hospital-style cloak. Ideally these parts will be in black and white. This will make the storyline fragmented, another convention of thriller.



Characters:
Female hospital patient: with a mental issue that has developed from illegal testing.
Government Official 1: The higher of the two officials in the sequence, he will have a powerful strong voice
Government Official 2: This will be the official more involved with the experimental side of things. THis character will also be male.

Suggested Locations:
Office style rooms for the filming of the telephone conversation
Forested area in college for the escaped patient parts.

Conventions of Thriller: Something to Consider..

For our product to be effective and appeal to thriller audiences, we need to abide by a few conventions to maintain a fludity of genre.

Narrative:
Thrillers usually involve a narrative that is based around a crime. This crime is, in most cases, serious such as murder. The narrative structure can be eliptical and fragmented containing false paths, clues and resolutions. Thrillers commonly introduce enigmas which the audience will expect to be resolved throughout the course of the film. THe plot will usually contain an underlying enigma which is clouded by other issues in the film and is eventually resolved at the end. The protagonist of the film is draw into a web of intrigue by the antagonist, systematically disempowered. The end of the movie usually contains a scene where we are forced to the edges of our seats as we view the protagonist in peril. Thrillers commonly contain extraordinary events occuring in ordinary situations.

Themes:
Thrillers usually contain a number of themes. These themes include mirroring, voyerism and identity. The themes often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist's psychological state. A classic example of a couple of these themes is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, or Se7en starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.

Micro-Elements:
The mise-en-scene of the film usually echoes the protagonist's plight. Dark and shadowy scenes are used to represent the constricted and shadowed path that the protagonist faces. Sound is usually eerie and digetic to add realistic tension, along with a non-digetic soundtrack that is intense yet sparse to add tension in pivitol and key scenes. Framing is usually restricted to add a sense of claustrophobia and need to escape. Quick cuts are commonly used to add pace and tension.

Evaluation of Production Co. Logo

For our production logo we wanted to create something iconic, and simple so that it was recognisable and memorable, relating to the thriller genre to add relevance.

Having taken a short while to think of an appropriate name for our group to adopt, i set about finding an appropriate font. I used website "Da Font" for inspiration and selected the one that we have used, named "Bullet In The Head" as this font gives a significantly distorted look which relates to the Thriller genre.

Having applied my choice to photoshop, i thought about some effects that i could add to enhance the look. After playing with several ideas i settled on create a blood-red highlight, again to add relevance and keeping our design distinguishable. I felt that this simplicity added a certain class to our logo, after all, less is more.

At Your Door Production Logo

Analysis of Past Students Blog and Marking Criteria

We have analysed the work of the group S1-23. We have concluded that this work is of a very high standard. This work, we believe, is a Level 4, which conforms to the following standards:

Level 4 - 48-60 (Video)

• Holding a shot steady shot, where appropriate;
• Framing a shot, including and excluding elements where appropriate
• Using a variety of shot distances as appropriate
• shooting material appropriate to the task set
• selecting mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting
• editing so that meaning is appropriate to the viewer
• using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set
• using sound with images and editing appropriately for task set
• using titles appropriately

Level 4 - 16-20 marks (Research and Planning)

• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
• There is excellent organisation of actors; locations, costumes or props.
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, costumes or props.
• There is excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
• Time management is excellent.  

In regards to the video aspect of the project the clarity and precision of camerawork is fantastic. The shots are held steady where required which applies to the first bullet point. The framing is also very good, selection of character positing and in relation to the natural environment has clearly been carefully selected, which applies to multiple points in the marking criteria. However, a lack of transitions was evident and just a basic cut was used. Although the lack of transitions was made up for by the effective use of colour correction and sound/image editing and the highly effective use of titles. The video can be found here:

The groups organisation skills are relatively good as well. There is an excellent amount of research into similar products and the target audience that they will target. The research is extensive, covering a vast amount of hybrid thrillers and conventions. However, there is a slight lack of planning in the way there is a lack of shot list. However, this i rectified through a rough draft cut that they have constructed and amended for their final piece.

Psychological Thriller Conventions

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Conventions Of Political Thriller

Polital thriller is one of the many sub-genre's of thriller.

Political thrillers involve storylines based around the mindset of major governement officials and the corruption that surrounds their decisions. Political thrillers, are conventionally like thrillers, just with the involvement of politics. The storyline ivolves the main character, usually the protagonist, unraveling a web of lies and corruption and the path it that this person is led on. This path is usually psychologically challenging can involve elements of action.

A classic example of a political thriller is the film "The Interpreter". A more fast paced political thriller would be The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum.

Preliminary Evaluation

    We learnt how to position the camera in a particular ways from this we learnt what shots were most effective. when editing we found that there was another way of cuttimg in and out so that we ould get the clips we wanted. This turned out to be easier and we could get the cuts more accurate.

   We found that finding the correct location to film our preliminary task was a little difficult, this was because we needed a corridor with doors but a corridor that was long enough to get our long shot that was wanted. Whilst trying to upload our film to youtube we had some difficulties the whole film uploading as the first couple of tries only a half the film went on, we resolved this by rendering the whole video again to ensure it was all smooth. After doing this we managed to upload the video first time with no problem.

Having given some of the conventions of thriller a thought, we decided to use an effective mise-en-scene that made our first character seem mysterious and dark with his hood up while his body was positioned in a way that the camera did not expose his face until the climax of the scene. Our camera angles were basic. Most angles used were long shots and close-ups, including over-shoulder shots for the conversation. these added mystery to our storyline. although we wanted to, we didn't use any non-digetic sound due to timr ristrictions. we included a conversation as this was part of what we were tasked to do. In the editing phase we only used one simple fade in/out transition to add a smooth transition into our main sequence. In the editing process we made sure we stuck to the 180 degree rule to add continuity.

Preliminary Task

This is our Preliminary Task, in which we just got used to using the camera and using different shots.

Preliminary Task Storyboard

These are our storyboards we followed when filming our preliminary work, though brief these were essential in remembering what we had to capture.