Opening Sequence Idea - Rockstar

Our final and most successful idea is influenced by the killing of John Lennon and the motives behind Mark Chapman, his killer and crazed fan. Completely filmed backstage, the rock star will walk off stage after his performance and muscle through the onslaughts of fans and hassling interviewers. When a fan comes and asks for his autograph, he is shot and the sudden incident will create a shock for the audience. A reporter before the shooting will walk along with him and ask him the probing question, ‘apparently you are thinking of retiring’ this is met with a dismissal but gives the audience a two different perspectives of the murder. The murder could well have been a harrowing surprise to the rock star, or he may have set it up to get him away from the hectic lifestyle of a musician. This would make the audience question the meaning behind the sequence, long after it has been watched. Although the idea is simple, it is also effective when you question what the rest of the movie would be about.    

Movies like our idea 'lift' - Suspence Based.

Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock, 1960 - Gus Van Sant, 1999
Norman Bates, his mother, the Bates motel, Bernard Hermann's chilling score, the shower scene? Alfred Hitchcock's thriller is a master class in creating suspense. It horrified audiences when it was released and while Gus Van Sant's shot-for-shot remake may seem like an exercise in pointlessness, it proves that the film still has the power to shock today.

Shadow of a Doubt
Hitchcock - 1958
Described by David Mamet as 's finest film, "Shadow of a Doubt" describes the tale of a young American woman's struggle with her murderous Uncle. Featuring a cameo from Hitchcock himself (as a Bridge-playing man 15 minutes in), the film was remade in 1958 as "Step down to terror".


The Sixth Sense
M. Night Shyamalan - 1999
Child psychologist Malcom Crowe (Bruce Willis) is attacked by an enraged ex-patient who shoots him before killing himself. Crowe later takes on the case of 9-year old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) whose loneliness and fear of ghosts resemble Crowe's attacker. Producing the inimitable "I see dead people," line, Sear tells Crowe that the ghosts he sees do not know they are dead.


Rear Window
Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
A photographer recuperating from a broken leg is wheelchair bound in his New York apartment. To pass the time he begins spying through a camera lens on his neighbours from the rear window of his apartment. Eventually he becomes convinced he has witnessed a murder. Featuring the memorable pairing of Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly.


Vertigo
Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
A classic psychological thriller from Alfred Hitchcock with more haunting music by Bernard Hermann. Jimmy Stewart is John ?Scottie' Ferguson, a San Francisco detective who leaves the police force and begins suffering from acrophobia after witnessing a fellow policeman fall to his death while the two are chasing a criminal across rooftops. He then becomes obsessed with a mysterious woman whom he has been hired to follow by an old friend.



A Touch of Evil
Orson Welles, 1958
"The strangest vengeance ever planned!" declared the film's publicity poster in 1958. Beginning with Orson Welles' typically ambitious three and a half minute continuous tracking shot, this classic film noir starring Charlton Heston is a dark tale of murder, kidnap and corruption in a Mexican border town.

Opening Sequence - Shutter Island

The opening sequence of Shutter island gives an insight to what the rest of the film is about and gives us an idea of the character’s roles. Starting with Leonardo Di Caprio forgetting where here cigarettes are on the boat, it shows his venerability and there is perhaps something wrong with him at the moment. Perhaps he is ill or there may be something more. The establishing shot of the island in the stormy weather shows the destination and mysteriousness of it. It also shows how there could be danger on it, awaiting them. After meeting the first set of guards, they pass through countless wire fences and high brick walls, which are particularly ugly. This subverts from the stereotypical island which should be paradise. Upon entry into the mental institute, there guns are taken leaving them weak and Di Caprio’s partner struggles with taking his gun out of his holder. This shows his inability to perform daily activities that people in his field do, therefore showing he is inexperienced. As they walk through the courtyard, the chained, mental inmates highlight the genre of a thriller. The close up silence on the crazed woman putting her finger to her lips is an inclination of what the movie is about and tells the audience that there is more of this to come. This as an opening sequence works well as although it is short, it satisfies the thriller criteria, shows what the film is about and creates queries about our two main characters. These queries become a huge rhetorical question as the film goes on.
 

Thriller Idea PP - Lift 5

Level 5’

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Denotation and Connotation

 

     

Image	Denotation	Connotation
Still from Scream	Person in mask in black sorroundings	The masked person  is mysterious and scary. potentially dangerous.
Still from Psycho	Woman in shower looking worried or unhappy. Blue tint.	Something has scared her and the blue tint shows that she is sad and not alright.
Still from Gothika	Woman looking at writing on a wall saying ‘not alone’	The writing in the wall is in red showing danger, something is out to get the woman.
Still from  Friday 13th	Women far away from masked man in a lake	woman is scared of the masked man who looks dangerous and asif he wants to hurt her.

Miners’

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Idea for Opening Sequence of Thriller - 'Stalker'

The opening sequence would start with a slow panning shot of a lamp lit wall. the wall would be covered with pictures of a certain man in different situations, with his family, not knowing he is being photographed, or even smiling and looking innocent. the photos would be in a sort of collage form with writing in pen, such as harmful words and the scribbling out of past lovers, done in a violent way. whilst we are panning, a hand with a marker can appear from beside the camera and write on the wall, or scribble out another character in a photo beside the man. the names of the directors and team behind it would feature at random points throughout the collage. then the diagetic contrapuntal music would pass over a cut to a woman walking down an office corridor. we would have a tracking shot following her smart high heeled shoes in a side on angle. another cut to her finger pressing a button on a lift and then a quick cut to a long shot of her. as this cut happens the music stops and the lift opens, revealing the man we have seen so much of on her wall at home, as she stands next to him she says 'going up?' and the doors close, finishing the opening sequence.

                     I like this idea as by the time the collage ends, the audience knows a lot of information about this victim of a stalker, that he has a wife and children for example. Anything we see in these photos we will remember about this man, we can even guess what his personality would be like from pictures of him with friends or in a bar or club. But, we know nothing about the stalker apart from the fact that she works with the man in an office. The end part of the sequence leaves the audience guessing as to what will happen next in the lift, a cliff hanger. And for the time the two people are in the lift together, the sense of suspense and terror would be overwhelming. The fact that we know something that the man does not know is the key idea of the sequence, which I believe works well.

Idea for Opening Sequence of Thriller - 'Miners'

I based my idea around the mining accident which happened a few months ago now in Chile. I thought the sense of entrapment was a scary thought and the sense of the unknown is also a fear many people share, this is why I would film the opening scene on top of the land in the shanty town which was constructed over the collapsed mine named ‘camp hope’ in real life.

                The first shot would be of a young boy, filmed in a tracking over the shoulder shot, he is putting a battered teddy bear and a letter to his ‘papa’ into a black bin liner type bag, as he does this he is waling through crowds of people, the audience can notice there tattered clothes even from the low height of the boys eyesight. He squeezes passed bodies with his bag in hand, he can see the debris on the floor symbolising a hot climate and we can notice people’s dusty sandals. Finally he comes to a clearing with a large black pipe coming out of the ground, as he gets closer to this pipe the camera rises over head using a crane shot and into a birds eye view looking down on the boy and down the pitch black pipe line. As the boy drops his bag, the camera suddenly drops down the pipe, following it and into blackness. The title ‘Miners’ would then be shown and the opening sequence is finished.

                I have noticed some problems with this idea which might hold it back from actually being my teams thriller. We would have to find a willing parent who would let there 7 or 8 year old boy skip school for the day and children are always harder to work with as they are not as focused. Another problem would be the deserted landscape of a country with a hot climate which I was interested in having. Although this would make the sequence more realistic, I don’t believe there is anyway we could get this effect from the English countryside in winter time, or in the studio. I think the shanty houses and camps would also be difficult to create on the school budget.

Conventions of a Horror/Thriller

Woods
Screaming
long silences
chasing scenes
Darkness
scary people
blood
struggling scene

suspence

Ghosts, spiders, snakes, the unknown, the deep sea, cramped spaces, sharks and abuse are just a few of the many things people nowadays are afraid of. this is why they are commonly used in Thrillers and Horrors.

Editing

When editing, we used the rushes from our camera and created a log bin for them, making it easy for use to refer back to them at any time. When doing the editing process in ‘Final Cut’, we selected a handful of rushes to work from over others. the ones we used, we thought would have a high suspense factor and also make the storyline easy to follow at the same time. We thought if we did too much cutting of the rushes, the cuts would be too quick, not giving the viewer a chance to feel the thrilling feeling we were trying to get, so we tried to find the ‘best fit’ which would make the cuts slower and smoother.                                                 Referring back to the story board, we noticed that the audience are clearly supporting the victim due to the privilege he is given because of the amount of screen time he gets. Shots like the over the shoulders and close ups are used to show the intimidating tactic this person is trying to use to get the other to ‘do it’. The close ups can tell the audience that the intimidation is working significantly, so we feel for the victim more. We tried to keep this aspect as true to the script as we possibly could as we realised that anything else would lessen the feeling of anxiety we feel for the victim.

Shot order was also important when making the sequence as it is key to the audience understand what is happening. We started with the prosecutor walking in and the victims reaction to seeing this person would come shortly after, revealing that the person who has just arrived is a problem. The conversation rushes are then used, linking voice to face to keep the action easy to follow. Then the rush of the phone is used showing the item which is being argued over. The footage when the persecutor walks out is then used to show that a character has left the scene, and then the last footage used is of the victim’s reaction to seeing him leave.

            The final touches in the editing process where what figuring out what times we cut at in the rushes. we had to cut just before some one touched something or someone picked something up, and then start the next piece of footage with them touching the object, to make the movement which cuts over believable. We this is why we asked the actors to keep there movements to a minimum, so later on in the editing stage, the cutting can be identified by obvious movements. 

Prelim Task Evaluation

The location the boys decided to film in was the media classroom. for our task, the classroom created a great office feel with the desks and chairs and general coffee cups and other bits and pieces. the light was also nice up against the white board, creating nice shadows and 3 D feelings. the 2 tear lighting was well used around the desk and chairs, also catching the background desks as well, making the scene more realistic. I was in charge of set arrangement and getting the actors into place, creating a believable scene, I also had some good ideas for the shot choice, such as follow shots and the CCTV camera shot when the victim scribbles help, in the hope of someone seeing on television, this turned out to be our favorite shot as a group. but overall, i worked on all areas on the set which will set me in good steed for making my thriller in January.

My thoughts towards lighting where that the two tired lighting system created a verisimilitude of a classroom. This gave a real life feeling to our scene and made it all generally more believable. This proved effective as the scene was given a really realistic feeling, this worked as it was believable.

We set the camera up correctly by attaching it onto the tripod, we leveled the camera on the tripod and then checked the white balance, aperture, that the rule of thirds was apparent and made sure the shot was only of the intended set. We repeated this after every shot to keep the high standard of filming (for example, we made sure the lighting equipment was out of the shot). We decided to have 2 over the sholder shots, a close up shot, wide shots, a twin shot and a mid shot to set the scene from various different angles.  

We used a story board to plan out our sceen shots, we started with a wide shot, moving into 2 over the sholder shots and 2 reverse close ups. After we did the basics on the story board, we got quite creative with our shots, getting under the table, up high and even outside the room, to film what a passer bye would see, all adding to the realism of the piece. We conformed to the 180 degree rule, being careful not to break it and keeping it in our minds at all times. Lastly we used appropriate terminology to get everyboady ready for the next shot or take. Saying ‘stand by’ made everybody focus and turn to there jobs on set, saying ‘action!’ made it clear for everybody that the camera was rolling and that everybody should be as silent as possible. The actors would then know to be in character and act in the ways that I told them, using the ideas that I gave them to create a realistic scene.

Summarizing what I have learnt in practical film making, I felt that I learnt what it is like to be on a professional set and that I am capable of doing each job on set.

Introduction to Video Camera

I learnt how to successfully use a video camera. I learnt how to set up the tripod, creating a solid base under the camera. You attach the handle to the side of the camera making it  Linked to this is the spirit level, stabilising the camera and making it’s weight centred over the supporting tripod. This concludes the basic set up. Now, with the camera on, u must set the frames to 250 and check to see if the white balance is correct for the specific light needed in the shot. You can do this by using a white piece of paper and holding it still in front of the camera. You then zoom right in and use the white balance button to synchronize the tone. For a tracking shot, you need  to lay down the tracks for the movable tripod to move freely on.  They have to be a certain width apart for the camera to move freely with out jolting. Lastly you focus the lens on the for the required shot, zooming in and zooming out.

What Is a Thriller?

Whilst looking at the thriller genre, we studied the films 'Children of Men' and 'The Usual Suspects'. after looking at these films, we discovered that sound, mise-en-sene and editing camerawork all contribute to creating a successful thriller. mise-en-sene, (meaning everything in the diagesis) is used to clearly tell the audience the plots of the films and also what is important to the narrative of the story. camerawork is used to make sure that the audience always notices the small hints which class the film as a thriller. editing also character's reactions to thrilling occurrences throughout the film. lastly sound, whether it be diagetic or non diagetic, all combines together to make the viewer feel a thrill. for example, the diagetic sound of women crying when watching the radio broadcast, makes women especially watching the movie, think about how painful it would be to not be able to have children. Ambient sounds like background footsteps, synchronous sounds such as a creaking door and asynchronous sounds such as voiceovers are all effective also.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NikEQy1XxDE

This is a link to the official Children Of Men trailer.

Composition

Photography brings a visual language that is universal in understanding. We must then understand its vocabulary which consists of shapes, textures, patterns, lines, colours, shade of light to dark and sharp to blurry images. Just as we must learn to arrange words in a coherent order in order to make sense when we write or speak, so too must we put visual elements together in an organized manner if our photographs are to convey their meaning clearly and vividly.

Composition means arrangement: the orderly putting together of parts to make a unified whole; composition through a personal, intuitive act. However, there are basic principles that govern the way visual elements behave and interact when you combine them inside the four borders of a photograph. Once we have sharpened our vision and grasped these basic ideas of principles, then we will have the potential for making our photographs more exciting and effective than ever before.

About Myself

Hi there, my names Jake. before hurtwood i was a pupil at Milton Abbey School in Dorset. i have never studied anything to do with Media before but i am really enjoying media and the idea of creating films. From this year, i am hoping to gain knowledge into what goes on behind the camera insead of infront of it which is more familiar to me. i enjoy listening to music and playing guitar and songwriting. my favorite bands are Foals, liberteens and the Smiths. A recent film i enjoyed was Snatch featuring Brad Pitt. i thought his role as a gypsy boxer was a great display of acting.