Screen shots

Feedback

Positive:

• Voice over is engaging
• Props make clip interesting
• Sound track was good

To Improve:

• Camera shots could have had more variety
• Credits could be more visually attractive
• Logo/titles could be more animated

Art of the Title Task

Panel 1) - Shows the title of the sequence This shows use of a conventional thriller, as it uses a dark background to convey the idea of a conventional thriller.  

Panel 2)-shows a type of camera shot, being a close up, this helps the audience feel unaware of what is about to happen to the chicken. The use of saturated lighting also helps it to give a dark feel to the film.  

Panel 3)-shows the antagonist in the sequence, showing the costume which makes them look dark and intense as she is dressed in all black. It also helps introduce the character 

Panel 4)-a chicken being mysterious and creating a sense of unease (thriller convention), however it could be seen as an unconventional symbolic metaphor. 

Panel 5)-shows the prop of the antagonist (pendulum), this is a conventional thriller prop as it is used to hypnotise the protagonist's, and make them unaware of what is about to take place, the chicken is also symbolic to the protagonist. 

Panel 6)-shows the location of the antagonist, scary looking location, isolated area. 

Panel 7)-shows the high angle showing the chicken as weak, symbolic to how the protagonist will be  

Panel 8)-shows a bright background contrasting to the antagonist black clothes dark, which represents the characters personality 

panel 9)-the protagonist looking weak (thriller convention), as it is sown in a high angle also repeated, camera angle used to show the weak chicken. 

Final Cut

We found that our final cut was a success as we had enough time to correct it and when we had uploaded it, we liked the thriller conventions. One of the conventions was the sound track as it was a slow piano meaning it created a sense of mystery. The titles flickered like a candle adding to the suspense and moving the narrative along. The editing was smooth, including fades which made the storyline worryingly structured.  

Editing blog post

On the first day of editing, the group put the film sequence into final cut and took time in placing the shots in the correct place and made sure the cuts were concise. Once this was accomplished the sound track was placed into final cut and put in the right place on the film sequence. Feedback from the teacher meant that the soundtrack was changed to fit with the sequence and the improved sound track was widely acknowledged in the class feedback. We changed the saturation in the sequence as some of the clips were too dark and we tinted them grey to create an eery affect. 


On the second day of editing, we then added titles to the opening and started to add motion to them to make them more advanced. Fades in and out as well as a flicker affect were some of the editing transitions which we used in our sequence, on the titles to create a mysterious affect. Once the titles had motion, we then went through the sequence and tweaked the sequence, using the feedback, to make sure the film was as precise as possible. We experimented with the motion and instead of having conventional titles in the middle of the footage, we placed them in the corners so that the titles did not divert the viewers attention but still showing the titles and credits. We made the sound quieter after more feedback from the teacher so that the voice over dominated the narrative. 

Feedback from Roughcut

Editing:

Really nice cuts but maybe use more varied transitions like fades. The pace of the cuts is very nice and the best transition is at 1:56 as it is really smooth. 

Sound/music: 

Good use of background music, it was constant and reflected the theme of hypnosis and it was kept constant. The heart beat like sounds almost increase or create a sense of tension or unease and their was an effective voice over. The diegetic shuffling sounds of leaves and people talking were ambient. 

Camera work: 

There was an un-rendered transition but there were different zooms and distances. The camera was a little shaky at times and there was no variety between shot types. It was too close up so vary it and add some with more distance. There were no establishing shots and when being shown the clock it could be zoomed in better and more central.

Mise en scene: 

Use of props were good, the chicken and the clock helped the audience relate to the thriller. After chicken is supposedly shot, feathers scattered create a good effect, though it seems obvious that someone is throwing feathers into the shots.  

Titles:

Use of a background on title could be used, add in credits and make titles more interesting, for example add in movement. 

Thriller conventions: 

Eery music adds to the feel of the opening sequence. Dark location and the voice over adds tension. A lot of close ups but could be more fast paced, we lost the will to watch. 

Rough Cut

Sound track

Sound track first attempt evaluation

Our creation revolved around a piano which we thought was mysterious and could carry the narrative on as it changes in style throughout the piece. This was accompanied by a deep bass and fast beat to create suspense and add a sense of fear and pace to the track as it rushes the mysterious piano part. This is a hybrid as an orchestral emotional post 1700's style of piano mixes with a 20th century bass and beat system. 

We got our inspiration for the drum beat and bass from the band disturbed as they have many songs with this style of music. It contrasts with the soft emotional piano we chose which created the effect needed for the psychological thriller genre. 

Music Ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg57C0DzDk0

We liked this piece of music because it created a sense of mystery which is what we are looking for. It also confuses the viewer of what their emotions are, a mix between sadness and vulnerable. We want empathetic sounds with a strong beat and mysterious undertone. We would like the sound effects of clocks and a gun shot.

Antagonists and Protagonists

Protagonist


Dr Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is portrayed as the protagonist in the film 'The Sixth Sense'. He is a child psychologist living in Philadelphia and is an unlikely protagonist in this psychological thriller. His weakness is shown at the very start yet the audience are unaware of this at first. He is shot by a crazy man yet we see him in the next clip perfectly fine. It is later revealed that Malcolm is in fact dead and the nine year old boy he's been talking to and working with, Cole Sear ( Haley Joel Osment) able to communicate with the dead. 



Crowe is a confident man who isn't afraid of what others may seem to be obscure, frightening or delusional. For example upon being confronted with the mad man in his room he acts calm towards the man in order to maintain himself. This backfires on Crowe and he his shot. Soon after the mad man kills himself. This is where we see his first weakness. Before this scene we have seen him looking at an award for outstanding work with children and to suddenly see our hero fall is a shock to the audience. We intend to do this in our own piece but slightly more subtle by using the chicken as our fallen hero in a metaphorical way. 


Antagonist


Dom Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a thief who specializes in conning secret out of people's dreams. Cobb is the protagonist in this film, but however his subconscious wife is the antagonist. When in a dream the dreamers subconscious is shown by normal people walking around doing normal things, but when something is changed in the dream by someone else intruding, the subconscious realise this and try to remove the person infiltrating the dream. His wife, in this case, ruins plots which they set out to do by knowing what he is going to do and runining plans. 





At the start we shown Mr. Saito (Ken Watanabe) hiding a secret while Dom Cobb infiltrate his dream. They nearly discover this secret although Cobbs wife, Mallorie "Mal" Cobb (Marion Cotillard) understands what he is thinking and wants to ruin their plan so they wake up. At the end she kills Robert Michael Fischer (Cillian Murphy) the heir to the business and almost ruining the mission which Cobb and his team are trying to plant a thought in his mind. 

Top 10 Filming Tips

1. Keep camera steady because it will look unprofessional and the shots will appear unclear. This will mean the narrative does not come across clearly.   
2. Keep the camera in focus because if it is out of focus it will look blurred and cannot be seen properly by the audience. 
3. Have a variety of shots because it makes the footage more exciting and fits in with the thriller conventions. 
4. Good timekeeping because there is not much time to fit everything in so it must be managed well or else certain criteria will not be covered. 
5. Don't cut too late or early because it will cut out part of the narrative and mean that valuable footage will be wasted. 
6. Keep shots appropriate to theme because if the shots are not mysterious and bright and colorful,  matching a children's film criteria then the task is a fail. 
7. Work as a team because this results in less work for everyone and so it means the individual tasks can be done to the best of the teams ability. 
8. Don't make sequences too long because if they are too long then they do not carry the narrative smoothly and would ruin the suspense. 
9. Keep equipment safe because if equipment breaks then certain tasks cannot be carried out and part of the thriller criteria would be missing. 
10. Be safe in general because if the filming endangers other people then it may mean that the marking criteria is not matched. 

Target Audience

Our target audience is 15+ as this audience is large but appropriate for a thriller viewing. Men may like it more than women as it includes weapons, however our opening is much more intellectual than conventional thriller openings. Due to our intellectual opening and the voice over to accompany it we find that the film may possibly attract an elderly audience as well, as they might be more interested in the more formal thriller than an action thriller. Having said this the plot may be slightly complicated for people to follow, as the themes expressed create a vast aery of emotions.

Test Footage

Pre-Meditated Film Opening Sequences

Strengths and improvements

My strengths: 

• Sound is a strength of mine as I know which type of sound to fit with which image, ie: sometimes silence is the most effective way to get across a message. 
• Time management is another strength as for the children's film, the group managed to keep everything going at once and not slipping behind because we planned our time well. 
• Blogging is a strength as I managed to blog in detail and I feature in most of the blog tags. 

To improve: 

• My editing knowledge is weaker than some other members in the group so for the next project I need to concentrate more on editing so my knowledge will improve. 
• My cinematography needs improving as for the last project we used animation so there were not many opportunities to shift the camera. 
• My communication needs improving as sometimes because of a lack of communication, some things in the group were done twice or not at all. 

Overall all what we could have improved on our children's film

Top two things we liked 

• Use of animation  
• Use of music  

Two things we will improve on next time round 

• Clearer storyline 
• Make it appropriate to the target audience  

Dates Of Filming

• We are filming in town (Cambridge), and in a small village on A saturday and Sunday. The dates will be on the, 12th and 13 of February.
• We think that we will be using a tripod and a HD camera.   

Feedback after pitch

How do you show the killing of a chicken?


Answer: We would buy some raw meat /a frozen chicken and using close ups and high angles, to make it look like the real chicken but dead. To kill it we would have the camera on the chicken, then drifting upwards towards the sky, then the camera would shudder and go back to dead chicken lying on the floor.


The storyline is confusing?


Answer: The narrative would explain the story mysteriously, maybe misleading the audience into a false sense of hope.

Mood board for thriller opening