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. 

Rough Cut

Credit Testing

We decided that because we haven't filmed anything for our project yet, that we were going to do credit tests, too see which type of movement and fonts might suit our piece of filming best. For this we decided that we would use photoshop to see which font type might suit the genre best. We then decided, after looking at several different fonts that the best suited was 'chalk duster' as it created a mysterious look for our chosen idea, this then linked best.   The image on the right shows this example. 


when we chose this final font, and added it onto photoshop we then decided that adding in a type of motion to the image would make it look more attractive, and involve the audience more. In order to do this we had to add the motion key to the text and move as well as render the image into different areas on the page, this created a mysterious look to the page, and we thought it was an original idea. 


However, although there was movement within the text on the page, we thought that it still needed another effect, so we decided that by adding another effect to the font it will make it look original. So we then decided to add an effect called blink to the text, so it flickered while moving across the page, this made the font look more effective and attractive to the audience, in comparison to the first idea. 

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

Skills and Improvment

Skills I'm good at...

• Cinematography - I feel I'm good at finding the best shots within a location to portray the micro and macro elements of our product.
• Time Management - In our children's film opening, I was able to organise our time efficiently in order to get the time consuming animation done to a good standard and in good time.
• Creating the story - I find that I can be good at coming up with ideas to inspire the group as to what our product should be about.

Skills I could improve on...

• Editing - Using Final Cut has always been a weak point. I find handling the basics an easy task, however using effects and using various other aspects of the program can prove difficult for me.
• Detail - I feel I don't think in much detail towards the background to our ideas. Mostly concerning the target audience.
• Clear thinking - I think I could find better ways of expressing my views and ideas to the group whilst making myself clear.

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.

Pitch blog

The inspiration for our idea comes from the  psychological thriller, the Prestige. In the opening to this film,  a pile of top hats is occupied by a black cat. A symbolic reference to magic and magicians. Our piece is slightly different, in the sense that its revolves around hypnosis. We figured we should create something similar, yet replace the cat with a chicken and the top hats with ticking clocks. These are symbolic references to the underlying theme of the opening.

The opening to 'The Prestige' 

The sub genre for our opening would be psychological thriller, because it revolves around the theme of hypnosis which is related to psychology. The font we would use would be block typed writing because it symbolizes the neutral element of the film. When hypnotized, your thoughts are dismantled and we feel the font expresses this neutral feeling. The title of the film is 'Premeditated' as it is all happening in the mind and joins well with the theme of hypnotism. 

There will not be an exact antagonist or protagonist as our opening will be more symbolic than conventional thriller openings. We figure that this will highlight the element and mood of mystery we plan to incorporate into the film. We plan to also have a voice over with the opening, so that the narrative isn't always unclear. 

We plan to film in a country location, where one of our group members keeps chickens we can use in our film. The countryside location also highlights the isolation theme of the psychological thriller. We want the sound to be eerie, so it un-nerves the audience and influences them to ask questions towards the film. We also think the digetic sound of ticking clocks fills the viewer with anticipation.

Ideas for thriller opening

Idea 1
The theme of the thriller would revolve around hypnosis
Chicken in a forest
floor covered in clocks
chicken pecks at the clocks
camera moves up towards the sky
dying chicken noise
look back down to see dead chicken
in between this, there would be a pendulum
slowly zoom out on the pendulum


Idea 2
Circling peoples faces to show kill off
The protagonist walking, close up on feet
People talking, camera taking pictures of them
transition into grave yard
explosion
sounds of people crying


Idea 3
Montage of pictures
Flashy editing
nothing clear
smoke effects
lit fire, slowly dying out

Panic room opening credits font

The font in the opening credits is typography which is used as a silver bold writing, embedded in the scene and buildings of the city being shown through establishing shots. 

Thriller Logo - Lionsgate

We looked at two versions of the Lionsgate logo and compared each.

This logo represents children's films or family firms such as Alpha and Omega.

This version of the logo on the other hand, represents more graphic thrillers and films such as the Saw franchise. The logo is dark and uses complimentary colours to represent the dark themes portrayed in the majority of their films. In the Saw films, there is a lot of darkness and blood which shows the obscenitys of the production corporation which can be seen in the logo of Lionsgate with the bold writing and dark colours. 


Making our own logo 

 

We chose to do our logo this way because it was original, We also liked the idea of have a tornado at the  back round as it suits the genre of our film; thriller. The use of the tornado image also symbolizes the thriller having a non-linear narrative, in addition to this, we liked the contrast of the destructive tornado and the image that it has created, the love heart, this mean this image if edited can be made into different specific genre's. 

If we were to animate this image, we would have the sound of a tornado, and the two tornadoes coming together to form the heart image, and then have M.A.C productions and have it twist into the image, in opposite directions until it got to the center of the image, and then have it slowly fade out into the opening sequence.