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. 

Age restrictions

What certification we thought would suit our opening sequence best 

After looking at the BBfC's enquiries and after looking at our film i think the best certification for our film is a 15. This is because our film if it were to be a real one would obtain all of the things below for a 15 film. Meaning no-on under the age of 15 would be able to see the film.   

’15′

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely  to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

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.  

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. 

Salt Poster

The image is a picture of Angelina Jolie, who is center of he poster taken at a close up,this makes that  audience aware she is one of the main character in the film. The dark background also gives the audience the impression that the film is going to be a dark film.  Her eyes are set to the audience, this gets them involved with tension.

Test Footage

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.   

Location

In our group with location we have come across many issues, one of the main issues being that we all live too far away from eachother, so we came up with the idea of all of us meeting in town to do most of the filming in about two weeks, and too find counrty side space there, and then for the other two group members, (Connor and Adam) to do the last section at Connors house the following day because they live nearest to eachother.
As well as this we chose to locate our film in the country side becuase although it doesn't meet a Thriller convention, it would work rather well in our opinion because it plays on peoples fears of isolation.

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. 

Memento Thriller Opening Sequence analysis

The voice over of the main character is the stream of consciousness as the narrative is wanting us to get to know the protagonist and relates to his character. The audience sees that the character is confused and so the audience wants to know more about the protagonist and feels sorry for him. The theme of lack of memory is incorporated into memento as the protagonist does not know who his true self is and from the opening suggests that we uncover what his true personality is. The protagonist is isolated and vulnerable as he has a weakness which is that he cannot remember things and so his personality is lacking depth. 

The reversing of time means that the linear structure disappears and so the sense of confusion becomes stronger and more intense. This is emphasized when the murdered man is seen after the murder having coffee with the murderer adding to the distortion. There is a close up on his eyes to show that reality is not as it seems and it is powerful imagery which adds to the sense of suspense. The black and white shows that this scene is in another time and so it is a flash back. There is also a high angle of the room to show the protagonist is weak and this is backed up by the guy not wearing anything on his legs with just a shirt, creating a sense of mystery and asking questions instead of answering questions. 

The mise en scene of the pictures and the tattoos on his body make him remember what has happened in his life, this appears to the audience as unreliable and dangerous as he has a dual identity. The slow pace of editing and close ups indicates a confusion and drowsiness in the character and this is backed up by the tense non-diegetic sound track contributing to a sense of suspense. 

Thriller Conventions

Psychological Thriller Conventions.

• Central theme of identity - Mistaken identify, stolen identity ( amnesia), dual identity doppelgangers.
• Perception - Often the narrative is shown from the perspective of multiple characters.
• Reality - confussion between what is and what isn't different to the normal established within the film. 
• Memory - The torture of an individual by a traumatic search for a last memory. 
• Stream of conscience - The viewer is invited to identify with the psyche of a particular character. 
• Unreliable narrator - the person telling us the story is resolved untrustworthy, the viewers get a sense of rewinding and fast forwarding of events non-linear narrative editing. 
• Imagery - the eyes in the regular visual motif 

Seven Opening Sequence.

Opening Sequence of Seven - David Finche.


In the opening sequence of Seven many of the conventions match the conventions of a Thriller opening sequence. One of these is that the narrative is around solving a crime. The audience only sees the crime scene and not the actual murder which performs to the convention of a Thriller.


Also in the opening sequence there is sinister music which builds suspense. Also during the opening sequence the titles are creative and don't perform to normal titles; the fonts look handwritten and messy which also contributes to the Thriller convention because it adds to the mysterious atmosphere of the film.


Another way which Seven follows the typical Thriller conventions is that there is a villain who performs a crime, although the audience does not see the actual villain, we know there is one because there is a crime committed.


Finally the lead character is a detective (Morgan Freeman), which is an attribute which a Thriller film has. He is also isolated, asking questions which the police officers or the other detectives don't worry about, for example, "Did the child see the murder?". Then the officers ignore this and only care about how to do it simple. The weather is gloomy and very rainy, which adds to the mystery of the film. The film is set in a city, which we can tell because of the typical city noises, for example police sirens and the rain.