Practice Shot

This is one of our practice shots from our filming. This is from the beginning of the flashback where one of the characters walks up the hallway.

Planning the sound

Sound is a important part in a thriller clip because it adds suspense, can help to confuse and deceive the audience & keep their attention. If the sound editing is poor in a clip, then it can divert the audience's attention away from the film.

As a group, we have looked at many different sounds that we were thinking of including in our thriller clip. 
The first one that I decided to look at was a cello sound. It had a cello playing in it but it was done in a bumpy way, where it would miss one beat between each part. It sounds like a sinister heart beat and I felt this would be a good sound as the sinister, eerie part would make it more conventional for our thriller & the cello sound is a deep one that would fit into the flashback death scenes in our thriller.
The second sound that I looked at, was a piano one.
The last one I looked at was a sound clip of a man running and breathing heavily. This made me think about making our own sounds that we could add into our thriller once we are editing.

Opening Scene Narration

For our opening scene, we had to plan what the actors would say in it. This was because it would help us to plan our itinerary and make our filming for time efficient. 

The first scene where there is narration is in the flashback, where Charlotte is walking in and showing her friends, the board game. 
They say the following:
                                                                                                                                                                       
Olympia                                 - Charlotte, what's that you've got in your hands?

Jackie (younger Charlotte) - It's a game I just found.
                                                - I found it in my mum's cupboard

Olympia                                 - We should play

Natasha                                 - Why's it so important?

Jackie (younger Charlotte) - Because it's fun!
                                                                                                                                                                         
The next scene which has narration in it is when the girls are going to open the board game. The following is said:
                                                                                                                                                                    
Natasha                                - I've got no idea how to play this but I'm going to beat you guys.

All                                           - Oh, wow!
                                                                                                                                                                      
Once they have opened the box, all the girls are intrigued and interested by what's inside, which is why they all just make excited noises like the previous above.
The actors speak in the next couple of scenes, where 3 of the girls die on the board game. However, me and Rhiann did not plan what we wanted the actors to say in these scenes as we wanted them to be as realistic as possible and felt that they would be more natural if they said what they would normally say.

Planning the editing

Editing helps to create pace for the scene, which can add to the suspense or help create an illusion of danger. If there wasn’t any editing, you would just get the raw material of film that is filmed and this would cause the filming of the scenes to be more difficult as you wouldn’t be able to add or change the scene in any way. 

Editing Technique 1: Kuleshov Effect

This is when two shots are put together to give the audience a third meaning.

In this particular shot the audience will see someone holding the box in the present day and then the kuleshov editing technique will be used as the second shot will then begin the background will have changed but the hands and the box will be exactly the same as before in the first shot.

The reason we chose to use the kuleshov editing technique in this shot is that, the first shot is when the girl is holding the box in the present day, the second when she is holding it in the flashback when she was a teenager and the third meaning portrayed to the audience is that something has happened concerning the girl and the game adding emotional impact to the film, as this editing technique allows us not to have to show the audience exactly what happened without telling them and keeping part of the   story line a secret.

This editing technique is conventional of thriller, this is because thrillers aim to keep the audience in the blue and the story line unknown for as long as possible. This explains why we chose to use this editing technique and that, it may cause some confusion in the viewer as they do not understand what happened and why the flashback has happened, this is another convention of the thriller genre.

Editing Technique 2: Jump Cut

Jump cut is when the film suddenly focuses in on something.

We will use this editing technique when the main character- Charlotte sits down with the boardgame and the box is not opened, to the next shot where boardgame is out and all 5 girls are playing the game.

The reason we chose to use the jump cut editing technique is that we only have 2 minutes, therefore we did not want to waste time and potentially bore the audience by showing the characters set up the whole board game. Another reason we chose to use the jump cut editing technique is that the thriller genre aims to keep the openings brief and jumpy the quick change keep the viewer interested.

Editing Technique 3: Montage

This editing technique focuses more on the speed of editing, a montage is when the shots are quickly juxtaposed together in order to create excitement.

The shots where we will be using the montage editing technique is the shots of when the girls are playing the board game and they switch to showing them dead or dying.

We chose to use montage editing technique for this particular shots as it would cause the audience to have a better emotional connection with the girls that had been killed.

The editing can cause the film to be more conventional as there are many different techniques that can be used. Changing the pace of the film can cause the scene to look completely different. For example, if the shot is editing in a fast pace, then it will make the audience pay more attention and they would expect some action to happen. If it was editing slow, then the audience would be waiting for something to happen and it could create a anti climax.

Opening Credits

The purpose of a film credit is to let the audience know who have taken part in creating the movie clip that the audience are watching. For example, in our movie clip, we would have the following:

• Camera Operator: Nadia Shah
• Actors: Nadia Shah, Jade Almond, Jackie Jarvis, Charlotte Watt, Olympia Konstantino & Natasha Petrou
• Sound Technician: Rhiann Johal & Nadia Shah
• Editors: Rhiann Johal & Nadia Shah
• Film Director: Rhiann Johal
• Location Manager: Nadia Shah
• Storyboard Organiser: Rhiann Johal

Se7en Opening Credits:

Colours:

The main background colour was black with the flashing shots in between normally having a red theme. They have used white for the credit text, which stands out more against the black so it makes the names stand out more. 

 Style and Conventions of credits:

The credits are very flicky and they have used shadows to highlight the credits more. They have also made the text move around and get a glow to make it more highlighted. When it moves, they have also added extra elements to make it look as if it is being showed from a film reel, which connotes that it must be quite old. Also, at 1:04, the credit looks like The font looks handwritten and it looks as if the person writing in book is writing the credits out. 
Another convention of these credits it the effects on the sound. They have used parallel sounds that go with the shots of the antagonist, which helps to emphasis what he is doing. The enigma in this thriller is that we don't know who the person is, but we can only assume they are the killer.

order of appearance:

01: production company

02: production

03: film by

04: actors (title came up after the two main characters)

05: casting

06: music

07: costume design

08: production design

09: camera operator

10: co producers

11: main producers

12: writers

13: directors

14: title

Vertigo Opening Credits:

order of appearance:

01: production company

02: actors

03: director

04: title

05: co-actors

06: screenplay

07: based on novel 

08: photography

09: colour consultant

10: art direction

11:special photographic effect

12: process photography

13: title designed by

14: editors

15: assistant director 

16: make up & hair

17: sound recorded

18: costumes

19: special sequences

20: music

21: conducted by

22: associate producer

23: director

Group Anaylsis:

After looking at the videos by ourselves, Rhiann and I decided to work together to see what we liked the best. However, we both disagreed. I think the Se7en opening credits are better while Rhiann thinks that the Vertigo opening credits are better. We both decided to write down what points we felt were good about the opening credits that we liked so that we could use these points to help us with what we should include in our own thriller film.

Here is what Rhiann thought about the Vertigo opening credits:

'There are many reasons that I believe the opening credits for vertigo are successful in conveying that the film is of the thriller genre, successful in keeping the viewer engaged and making them want to continue watching the film to see the storyline unfold.

The first reason is that the I believe the credits are bold, the use of white font in front of the black and grey backgrounds stand out and are eye-catching as they convey a serious atmosphere to the film.

 

Another reason I believe the opening credits to vertigo are successful is that they keep the theme of the circle running throughout. This shows the hidden meaning to the film as vertigo means a sensation if whirling. The first circle we see is when the camera zooms in on the pupil of the girls eye, this is then followed by purple, blue and pink pyshcadelic spirals unfolding were the main credits naming the production crew appear. This made me think that adding meaning to the credits we use is important as thrillers aim to confuse the audience and convey hidden meanings to the viewer throughout, this helped to come to the idea that we could use the same font for our credits as we used on the game board featured in our thriller opening.'

I believed that the opening credits for Se7en was better than the opening credits for Vertigo. 
My first reason was that it was very obvious from the opening credits that the movie was going to be a thriller. This is because of the conventions that are portrayed in it. For instance, there is a enigma of who the character is who is completing all the tasks and actions that are shown in the clip. Also they suggest that the character is creating a book about someone or recording something which is another enigma in itself.

The sounds that are used, help to keep the audience engaged with the clip. Also the font is a stereotypical thriller font & it fits in with the scene as it looks to be handwritten and with the tasks that the character is completing, it all fits and joins together.

However, when we started to look at fonts for our own credits, we both were looking for the same thing. Here are some examples of fonts that we looked at:

1.2.3.

4.5.6.

1. I felt that whilst no.1 was a conventional thriller film but that because it was a type writer style font, it wouldn't fit with our board game narrative.
2. I picked no.2 as I wanted to see what a handwriting style credit would look like
3,4,5 & 6. As a group, we felt that while all these fonts are what you would expect to see in a thriller genre, we felt that they wouldn't fit with our narrative and film.

Order that our credits will come up in:
01: production company (level46productions)
02: director
03: actors
04: camera operator
05: storyboard organiser
06: location manager
07: editor
08: sound technicians

Filming Schedule

The filming schedule is an important part of the planning for a movie as it helps to make everything organised. It can be given to all the people on the set, as it has everything on it, from the content from the narrative to the hair and make up that will be used in the scene.

It also helps to work out how long each scene will take to film and can help to create a itinerary for the actors and crew for the filming days.

Here is the filming schedule:

We followed the filming schedule for most of our clip except for the last row. When we were filming the teenager daughter, we first filmed it as a panning shot but as the camera operator, I felt that a different type of shot would be better for this particluar scene. We went with using a mid shot instead with the girl walking into the camera so that our last shot would be the material of her jumper, which we felt would be a good finishing point to put the title on with that background as it is red like the board game.

Risk Assessment

We decided as a group that we should work out what risks that may be in the filming. This helped us as we knew what do to prevent any incidents & it helped us with our planning, as we had to add this to itinerary.

Planning the cinematography

Camera shots are very important for films because it can change the focus, set how the audience views the film & how they connect with all the characters. It can cause the audience to create a better connection with the characters & can cause the audience to emote more when actions have happened/are happening.

Panning Shot
The panning shot will be used when the girls are playing the board game & when one of the teenage girls (Natasha) has been killed. The board game scene will see the panning go round all four of the girls whilst they are sitting in a circle.
Shallow Focus
The shallow focus will be used on the one of the teenage girls (Olympia) when she is on the floor with the stab wounds in her. This will be so that people will know that she is in a kitchen of some sort but they won't know exactly where. Also it will make her the main focus of the shot.
Establishing Shot
The establishing shot will be used after the point of view down the hallway. It will show the whole living room with all the girls sitting down.
Point of View
We are going to be using a point of view shot when we show Charlotte picking up the board game in the present, then her walking with the board game in the flashback. This will make the focus on the board game and will allow the audience to wonder what Charlotte is doing as all they see is the board game and the moving environment. 

Character Representation

It is important to have a variety of characters because this will allow us to show the different personalities, how they apply themselves in the situations which they are put in. For example, if you have a victim who is a child & you have a victim who is an older person, you would see a difference in how they attempt to remedy the problem that is in front of them. 
Another reason would be because you would get different representations from each individual character. The dictionary says that representation is to describe or depict something and the representation also concerns the hidden meanings and what the object symbolises. 
In my group, we all thought carefully about what characters we wanted to use & what images we wanted to use to represent our narrative.
We have chosen the following characters:

Character 1 (main character):

Name: Charlotte

Age: 15 (in flashback) & 36 

Gender: Female

Race: White British

Background: Charlotte is in both the flashback when she is 15 and in the present day. Younger Charlotte will be used in the flashback and she is at a sleepover with her friends playing the board game. Older Charlotte is a mother who is moving and packing up when she finds the board game 'LETUM'

Purpose to the narrative: Younger Charlotte's purpose to the narrative is that she is the main character, she is the person who brings the board game to the girls and she is the character who the narrative will revolve around as she is the only girl who lives. Older Charlotte's purpose to the narrative is to show she is still alive and to calm the audience before all the action kicks off once her daughter has the game.

How will the character appeal to a audience: Charlotte will be a young girl, so many people in the audience will feel concern for her after seeing the other girls die. They will also wonder why she is still alive when the other's have died and this can cause the audience to feel scared and worried for her.

Character 2 (main character's daughter):

Name: Sarah

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Race: British Asian 

Background: Sarah is the daughter of the main character, Charlotte. She is with her mum, where her mum is helping clean and throw again some stuff.

Purpose to the narrative: Her purpose is to pick up the board game that her mother drops down and find a interest in it. Sarah will help bring attention to the board game and help emphasis that it is one of the main points in the clip.

How will the character appeal to a audience: As the audience would have seen the flashbacks that Sarah's mum Charlotte would have had, the audience will have connected with Charlotte. As Sarah is her daughter, the audience will feel a bond with her. Also when they see Sarah pick up the board game, they will understand that the board game has had bad actions revolve around it and the audience might panic when she picks it up and finds a interest in it.

Character 3 (teenage girl 1):

Name: Jade

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Race: White British

Background: Jade is one of the teenager girls that attended the sleepover and gets killed.

Purpose to the narrative: Jade is shown to be hit from behind and have a bag put over her head. Her character helps to show the audience that the board game is causing bad things to happen to the people who play it.

How will the character appeal to a audience: The audience will feel sorry for the girl as she has been killed and no one know why. She is just a innocent girl who was leading a normal life in the eyes of the audience.

Character 4 (teenager girl 2):

Name: Olympia

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Race: Greek

Background: Olympia is one of the teenager girls that attended the sleepover and gets killed.

Purpose to the narrative: She is seen to have stab wounds and a blooded knife is seen next to her. Her character helps to show the audience that the board game is causing bad things to happen to the people who play it.

How will the character appeal to a audience: The audience will feel sorry for the girl as she has been killed and no one know why. She is just a innocent girl who was leading a normal life in the eyes of the audience.

Character 5 (teenage girl 3):

Name: Natasha

Age: 16

Gender: Female

Race: White British

Background: Natasha is one of the teenager girls that attended the sleepover and gets killed. 

Purpose to the narrative: Natasha is seen underneath a car with blood pouring out of her head. Her character helps to show the audience that the board game is causing bad things to happen to the people who play it.

How will the character appeal to a audience: The audience will feel sorry for the girl as she has been killed and no one know why. She is just a innocent girl who was leading a normal life in the eyes of the audience.

Character 6 (villain):

(we haven't added a image of our villain as they are not shown in our two minute sequence so they could be anyone)

Name: Unknown

Age: Unknown

Gender: Unknown

Race: Unknown

Background: Unknown

Purpose to the narrative: The villian is the person who kidnaps one of the teenage girls in the flashback. That is the only thing that we know about the villain so it helps to create a enigma for the narrative.

How will the character appeal to a audience: The villain won't appeal to the audience as the villain won't be shown enough. However, it will help to create an appeal for the audience to carry on watching the film as they will want to find out who the villain is and why they have been attacking the game and what the board game has to do with it all.

Planning the mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene means everything (composing the scene) in french. In the film industry, it means the arrangement of scenery and properties that are used to represent the location where the play or movie is acted in.

Planning the mise-en-scene is important because we all need to know how the set should be set out and that everyone in the group has the same image in their head. Otherwise, people might change the set and this will cause the video clip to lack continuity.

There are 5 sections that are under mise-en-scene and me and my fellow member had to discuss and they are the following:

• Setting & Iconography
• Costume, Hair & Make-Up
• Facial Expressions & Body Language
• Positioning of characters
• Colour & Lighting

Setting & Iconography

For our narrative, we decided on 5 locations and they were the following:

My living room:
We filmed the sleepover & the girls playing the game in the living room. 
(ADD PICTURE OF BLANKETS)
We put a blanket on the floor which the girls would sit on & play the game. We added two duvet blankets and some pillow, while we randomly placed bowls on sweets and chocolates around to make it seem more like a sleepover. We put the game in the middle of everyone so that it would be the centre of the shot. 

(ADD PICTURES OF TABLE & SHELVES)
On the tables and shelves, we added many candles on them so that we could keep the low lighting in. We felt that because it was a sleepover, it would be dark so the candles would fit into the theme. 

(ADD PICTURE OF WINDOWS WITH BIN BAGS)
We had to also black out the windows as we started filming at 10 when it was light outside, and as it was a sleepover, it had to be dark. To make it seem dark, we taped bins bags to the outside of my windows. This meant that when the blinds were closed, no light came through and it looked like night time.

Rhiann's hallway:
We filmed the non-flash back part in Rhiann's upstairs hallway and we used her stairs, hallway and loft.
As the people were moving in the narrative, we got boxes and bin bags and filled them up with things so that the location looked more like a realistic one.

My kitchen:
We filmed the death of one of the teenage girls, Olympia in the kitchen. 

Outside on a path:
We filmed one of the teenage girls, Natasha underneath the car showing that she had been hit.

Outside in a alleyway:
We filmed one of the teenage girls, Jade being kidnapped outside. The alleyway was the perfect setting 

Costume, Hair & Make-Up
Our narrative shows that the girls are at a sleepover. This meant that we had a theme for our costumes, hair and make up.
For the costume, we got the actors to wear pyjama/casual clothes as this is what would be conventionally wore at a sleepover. When the 3 girls were being killed, they had normal everyday clothes on as their attacks were out of the blue.
We left their hair and make up as natural as possible so that it would be easier to fix if necessary. This also helped us with the continuity and time as we didn't have to stop between each  take to check.

Production Roles

Camera Operator: Nadia 

Actors: To be sourced

Sound Technician: Rhiann & Nadia

Editors: Rhiann & Nadia

Film Director: Rhiann

Location Manager: Nadia

Storyboard Organiser: Rhiann

Camera Operator: Nadia

A camera operator, which is also known as a cinematographer in the film making industry, is the person who operates the film or video camera. They have to physically operate the camera and ensure that the camera stays in the angles that the director has set for the scene. They will also be responsible to decide which lens would be best to use and they will check to see if there are any irregularities with the mise-en-scene. They will also have discussions with the directing team and they can have their say if they believe that it is the wrong shot and if another angle looks better.

We decided as a group that I would be the camera operator as I have experience with filming cameras because I had to make some movie clips for my coursework in Year 11 for my Media GCSE, which included behind the scenes clips and interviews & a short video clip for my ICT GCSE. 

Actors: To be sourced

An actor is the person who has the responsibility to play out the role that has been set for them. They have to convey the narrative that has been written out for them. They must be able to learn the scripts and recite them on time whilst including an emotional response when one is needed. They need to be able to become the character and make them look as real and authentic as possible.

We decided as a group that we would source other actors so that we could concentrate on the other roles without the added role of being a actor too.

Sound Technicians: Rhiann & Nadia

The sound technicians are responsible for all the sound that is in the film or performance. They have to communicate with the producers & directors to work out what sounds they want and need in their productions. The sound technicians have post production tasks that they have to complete, such as; adding in sound effects & integrating voice recording with the film.

We decided as a group that we would both be the sound technicians as we both have skills that we can bring to this role as Rhiann has a more developed imagination and she can think of what the best sounds would be for a scene/clip. However, I have more knowledge on using post production programs, such as garage band. This means I can put Rhiann's idea onto the computer and into the clips.

Editors: Rhiann & Nadia

The editor has to add all the clips together and make them suitable to broadcast or show. Their main role is to use all the raw footage and edit it all together and making the whole film run smoothly. They might also help the sound technicians by advising them with what sounds will go well with the clips.

We decided as a group that we would both be the editors as I have experience with the editing programs and Rhiann has more knowledge about the narrative and how it needs to be conveyed because she is the storyboard organiser.

Film Directors: Rhiann

A film director is the person who directs everyone to create the film. They have to make sure that the narrative that the writer has written will be portrayed in the creative way that they see it as in their heads. They will work with the storyboard organiser to make sure that their vision has gone through it and they will make the final decisions on the lighting, camera angles and lens effects on the cameras. In post production, they will make sure all the shots help to convey the actor’s emotions and if they need to add or change anything. They also participate with the sound mixing too.

We decided as a group that Rhiann would be the director as she is the storyboard organiser so she knows how the scene and shot needs to be set out and she can direct the actors in the most effective way as she knows the storyboard the best.

Location Manager: Nadia

The location manager has to work with the director to work out what their vision is, so that they can find and identify the correct location for the different scenes. Once they have found a location, they will check that it will fit in with the filming times and budget, and if it does, they will normally create a photographic storyboard with all the different camera shots. They must ensure that the whole crew knows how to get to the location and that all the health and safety rules are being met. They will have to bring in any extra stuff that is needed, such as power sources, catering and any permission needed too.

We decided as a group that I would be the location manager as one of the locations that we filmed at was at my house and that I knew the area around my house better to find places for the outside death scenes.

Storyboard Organiser: Rhiann

The storyboard organiser is the person who is responsible for how the narrative is going to be presented and portrayed. They will draw out the whole storyboard and have discussion with all the production team to make sure the storyboard is detailed. They will collect the following data from the following people:

• Camera Operator: Camera angles/shot
• Location Manager: Mise-en-scene & Iconography
• Editor: Editing
• Sound Technicians: Sound Effects
• Director: Narrative description, script & actors

We decided as a group that Rhiann would be the storyboard organiser as she is the more creative one out of the two of us and she will be able to execute the narrative onto the storyboard the best.