Production Brief (Billy Camden)

Production Brief

With regards to the above production brief, it would not allow me to put the whole document into one document, so i simply split the document in two and published them separately on our blog.

Call Sheet (Billy Camden)

This is a screen shot of the call sheet that we use to take out the camera equipment when we need to film. As we are filming at my house i will be filling these out, printing them and giving the call sheet to the technicians when taking the equipment out.

Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)

Week 6


 On Monday 15th February we got together with our characters to film the outside scenes of our sequence unfortunately Tobi, playing Melinda was not able to make it due to the fact that she was changing the style of her hair, if we shot her with two different hairstyles it wouldn't make sense.

We started filming around 3:00pm so it wasn't too dark, when we started filming we came across a few problems. We set up the camera near the road so every time a car came by we had to move the camera and this meant we had to adjust the camera so it wasn't slanted. Apart from that our two characters embraced their roles and we managed to get all the shots we needed for the exterior scenes. It was important for us to get some filming done over the half term as we were able to watch the tape and spot any mistakes and it gave us more ideas and ways to improve. Next week we hope to finish filming completely and get started on editing the footage. During the filming process we made some changes to our shots and so we have to take new photos for our storyboard in which delaying the uploading of our storyboard.

 Billy also added some information on the software that we have and will use during our coursework task. He explained how and why we would use them and above all when. By next week we hope to have our shot list and production brief completed

Software (Billy Camden)

With regards to the software that we have and will be using in both creating our blogs and the opening sequence of our thriller, we used software that we did already know how to use and other software that we have had to learn how to use. The first piece of software that we learnt how to use was 'scribd',

to create a much more effective and proffesional look to our blog we included the production schedule and the script on scribd. We found it quit easy to learn and we were happy with the end outcome. The next piece of software we again had to learn how to use was 'bubbl.us'. We used this piece of software in creating our brainstorm which

we found had a great effect. We can now navigate freely and fluently through the brainstorn and see each aspect of what we intend to do.The next piece of software that we learnt how to use was 'Final cut pro', we used this software in the editing of our preliminary task, it took use a while to really grasp the sowtware but now with a bit more practise we are confident that our editor can use this software to good effect when editing our opening sequence. We will also be using the software 'Soundtrack pro' within the editing process. Although we did not use any music within our preliminary task we are confident that we will be able to use it in the opening sequence of our thriller. Accompanying soundtrack pro we will also be using 'Sound cloud' to upload the score music for our final opening sequence.

Throughout creating our storyboard we have used 'Photoshop' to create a 'drawing' effect on the picutres we took of our film. We just simply uploaded each picture individually and made them into pencil art so that it would look like a real and professional story board.

Title sequence (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Analysis

Action thriller sub-genre (Rebecca Ogunmola)

Action thriller sub-genre

Looking at all the sub-genre that come under thriller genre as a group we have decided to choose action thriller, we have concluded with this genre, as in our featured film is shows elements of the genre such as a race against time as David and Melinda ask for a ransom payment at a particular time. Also in the opening sequence elements of an action thriller are introduced as in the beginning there is an obvious antagonist even though we can not see him the audience is clear about what role he plays in the film. There is also an element of mystery in the opening sequence as when Melinda offers to help Jessica she doesn’t return and instead Jessica find doors being open and the batteries removed from the phone. Also as Jessica tries to escape elements of mystery occurs as she is grabbed by a mysterious figure.

Narrative Theory (Abigail Odum)

Narrative theory studies the devices and conventions governing the organisation of a story (fictional or factual) into a sequence. Narrative especially that of film and TV, has an immense ability to manipulate our awareness of time and place e.g. flashbacks, replays of action and slow motion.


There are 2 main modes of narrative which need to be structured.

1. The narrative of events e.g. - A hero shoots an enemy agent, dives into a lake, triggers a remote control device which will destroy the enemy submarine.

2. The narrative of drama e.g. - The heroine has a tense argument with the hero and decides that she is going to leave. Nothing has happened in terms of events but a lot has happened dramatically.
Restricted narrative can be used to surprise an audience e.g. when a character does not know what's waiting around the corner and neither does the audience. A degree of unrestricted narrative can be used to build suspense, as the audience are anticipating the events to come, of which the character has no knowledge.

[Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967) pg 52]

Using Narrative to make meaning in film
Stories are very important in helping us to make sense of our lives and the world around us. Bordwell and Thompson point out different ways in which we are surrounded by the story form. An example would be as a child we listen to fairy tales and myths. Reading material as we progress becomes short stories, novels, history and biographies.

 Most of the films we see at the cinema are narrative films, films that tell a story. Even films which are factual often employ story methods to get this point across. We are so steeped in the narrative tradition that we approach a film with certain expectations, whether we know anything about the story or not. For example: we expect the opening to give us information about whom, what and where. We expect there to be characters that interact with each other. We expect to see a series of incident, which are connected with each other. We expect problems and conflicts. Finally we expect the ending to resolve the action or cast new light on what has happened.

 As the viewer watches a film, they pick up cues, recall information, anticipate what will follow, and generally participate in the creation of the film's form. The film shapes the particular expectations by summoning up curiosity, suspense, and surprise. The viewer also develops hunches about the outcome of the action; these may control our expectations right up to the end. The ending has the task of satisfying or cheating expectations prompted by the film as a whole.

[Bordwell D. and Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction, 1993]

Alfred Hitchcock Research (Abigail Odum)

 Alfred Hitchcock was born on 13 August 1899 and died 29 April 1980. At the beginning of his career he was very successful with his silent films and early talkies in the United Kingdom but then moved to Hollywood and in 1956 he was an American citizen. Hitchcock success included his fifty feature films within his six decade career.

 As Hitchcock’s career was launching he was inspired by many other films and directors. As he worked with F.W Murnau with his films he was impressed with his techniques and then used some in his own productions. Hitchcock also said that he was influenced by Fritz Lang's film, Destiny (1921).

 Hitchcock had a few problems when his career first was launched as some of his productions did not succeed such as Number 13 which had financial problems. He then directed a drama called mountain Eagle but this was lost. His career got increasingly better as he made his first thriller called The Lodger: A story of the London frog in 1927. Hitchcock was very successful from then on and made the following films.

British silent films

Number13 (1922), Always tell your wife (1923), the pleasure garden (1925), the mountain Eagle (1926), the lodger: A story of the London fog (1927), the ring (1927), Downhill (1927), the farmer’s wife (1928), Easy virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), The Manxman (1929), Blackmail (silent version) (1929).

British sound films

Blackmail (1930), Juno and the Paycock (1930), Murder! (1930), Elstree Calling (1931), The Skin Game (1931), Mary (1931), Rich and Strange (1932), Number Seventeen (1933), Waltzes from Vienna (1934), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1935), The 39 Steps (1936), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1937), Young and Innocent (1938), The Lady Vanishes (1939), Jamaica Inn (1939).

Tzvetan Todorov’s Equilibrium (Abigail Odum)

 Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher now living in France. His theory is a relatively simple one and goes something like this:

1. The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium (everything is as it should be)

2. It then suffers some disruption (disequilibrium)

3. New equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

• A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)

• A disruption of that order by an event

• A recognition that the disorder has occurred

• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

• A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

 Here narrative is not seen as a linear structure but a circular one. The narrative is driven by attempts to restore the equilibrium. However, the equilibrium attained at the end of the story is not identical to the initial equilibrium. Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation. The characters or the situations are transformed through the progress of the disruption. The disruption itself usually takes place outside the normal social framework, outside the ‘normal’ social events.

For example:

• A murder happens and people are terrified

• Someone vanishes and the characters have to solve the mystery

Things to remember:

• Narratives don’t need to be linear.

• The progression from initial equilibrium to restoration always involves a transformation.

• The middle period of a narrative can depict actions that transgress everyday habits and routines.

• There can be many disruptions whilst seeking a new equilibrium.

Responsibilities ( Rebecca Ogunmola)

responsiblities

Claude Levi-Strauss’s Oppositions (Abigail Odum)

Claude Levi-Strauss  introduced the notion of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the production of meaning within narratives. He argued that all construction of meaning was dependent, to some degree, on these oppositions. Examples of binary oppositions found in some moving image narratives might be:

Good vs. Evil

Male vs. Female

Humanity vs. Technology

Nature vs. Industrialisation

East vs. West

Dark vs. Light

Dirt vs. cleanliness

 Beyond its application to individual narratives, Levi-Strauss’s theory can and should be used to assess groups of texts and genres. Westerns, for example, went through a period in which binary oppositions included Homesteader vs ‘Red Indians’, Christian vs pagan and so on. We intend to apply this theory to our opening sequence.

StoryBoard - Unsuspected (Billy Camden)

Storyboard

Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)

Week 5

This week we went back to the location to take more pictures for our storyboard and then Billy used Photoshop to make the images black and white then he put them on Microsoft word, he put the pictures in order and wrote about it after that he hopes to upload the storyboard onto Scribd then put it on our blog for next week. Rebecca has completed the shortlist for our 2 minute sequence and we plan on filming during the half-term next week. We have informed our characters and they will all be available to film next week.

Also we had researched into the narrative codes of thrillers and have created a face book group to enhance our audience globally. Also Billy has done some research into title sequences and developed an understanding how to use them to mass effect when editing our opening sequence.

Facebook Fan Page (Group)

Facebook has many features which makes it distinct from the competitors. One feature is the Facebook Fan Page. A fan page is a tool by which you can expand your social network, interact with your clients and customers and promote something. Rebecca created a fan page for our film as it would enable us to get feedback from various different people. Also it would help us in doing questionnaire research because we can collect responses from different people.

Barthes’ Codes (Abigail Odum)

 Roland Barthes describes a text as:

“a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language...” (S/Z – 1974 translation)

What he is basically saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on. An infinite number of times. If you wanted to.

Barthes was a semiotics professor in the 1950s and 1960s who got paid to spend all day unravelling little bits of texts and then writing about the process of doing so. And there are 5 major codes within a story that are interwoven in order to create meaning. Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways:

• Action code & enigma code

• Symbols & Signs

• Points of Cultural Reference

• Simple description/reproduction

• Structures

These are all important however the enigma and action codes are the most helpful. The Enigma (hermeneutic) code refers to those plot elements that raise questions on the part of the reader of a text or the viewer of a film. For example, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Cause and Effect,” we see the Enterprise destroyed in the first five minutes, which leads us to ask the reason for such a traumatic event. Indeed, we are not.

The Action (proairetic) code, on the other hand, refers to mere actions – those plot events that simply lead to yet other actions. For example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder what the resolution of this action will be. We wait to see if he kills his opponent or is wounded himself. Suspense is thus created by action rather than by a reader’s or a viewer’s wish to have mysteries explained.

I learnt a lot from this information; it gave a detailed explanation on different codes which are used in filming thrillers. This helped as it gave me ideas on how to make our 2 minute sequence as effective as possible. Some of this above was taken from

Title sequences (Billy Camden)

“A title sequence is the method by which cinematic films or television programs present their title, key production and cast member, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound. It usually follows but should not be confused with the opening credits, which are generally nothing more than a series of superimposed text”.

This was taken from a website called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_sequence. This gave me an idea of what title sequences are and when and how to use them during the editing process. I looked into a film called ‘District 9’ and how they used their title sequences in introducing the film.

From carrying out research into how the stages of an opening title sequence are produced I have found that the order usually revolves around introducing the director, the creator’s logo, who the film was associated with and who the film is by, then the film begins. This was evident in the opening title sequence of the film ‘District 9’. This is how it began:

This is the logo of the company who produced the film, i have noticed that in a lot of movies opening title sequence, this is how they start it.

They then went onto show the directors name, this is to indicate who the film was directed by.

Following on from the directors name the titles introduce of the film was associated with, so basically the companies that aslo helped in producing the film.

The titles then move on to mentioning who the film the film was produced by, in this case the movies producers are from a company called 'Wingnut'. Also as this is the last action of the title sequence diegetic dialogue begins to start playin, many films do this to add mystery to the film and it is also a good way for the audience to know when the film is about to begin.

After all of the opening titles are played and the audience have been introduced to the creation of the film the film can start playing.

Storyboarding (Billy Camden)

 Storyboards are a series of pictures that contain images displayed in sequence for the purpose of illustratring how the film is to be presented such as motion picture, animation, motion graphic and camera angles.

 Storyboading is important when planning to make a film as it creates a better view for the film producers. Also when storyboarding it creates new ideas in the writers mind to what the story contains and help to see how the film will eventually look.

Storyboard update
We are currently in the process of producing our storyboard, as we have made some changes to our shot list we we started filming, we have to retake some pictures to match them to our film. Sorry for the delay we will have it up here ASAP.

Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)

Week 4

 At the start of this week Billy took the location pictures and uploaded it onto our blog, he put it in numerical order and wrote about the location. I wanted to get all our cast together to take photos of them for their character profiles however we couldn't meet due to circumstances so I took pictures from their face book accounts and uploaded it unto our blog. I wrote about the characters and the reasons why we chose them.

 In addition to this we got together as a group during the week and we discussed the shots we plan on using in our film. And then we took pictures for our storyboard. By next week we plan on getting our story board, narrative codes and research into title sequences completed.

Prop List (Abigail Odum)

Costume

Cast Notes (Abigail Odum)

These are the character profiles we will be using for our Thriller AS Media coursework

Jessica Brown

Age - 16

Gender - Female

Appearance - Long brown hair, blue eyes, freckles, petite, and 5’1

Mise-en-scene - (Costume) black jeans, black hoody, brown boots

Character info - Jessica is a bubbly teenager, who loves going out with her friends and she performs in theatres. Her father is a very rich man, she lives with her mother and 7 year old brother in a 3 bedroom house.

Melinda Fox

Age - 20

Gender - Female

Appearance - Short black hair, slim build, brown eyes, 5'7

Mise-en-scene - (Costume) Black leggings, white top, black cardigan, boots

Props - Telephone

Character info - Melinda is a friend of David and is willing to help him with his plan as long as she gets a reward in return. She's a heartless person and never feels any remorse for the evil things she does.

David Smith

Age - 23

Gender - Male

Appearance - Short brown hair,brown eyes average build, 5'7

Mise-en-scene - (Costume) Dark jeans, black hoody, black trainers and a mask

Character info - David is a sick and twisted man who seeks revenge after being fired from his job. He looks very frightful and will stop at nothing till he gets what he's after.

Location Notes and Pictures (Billy Camden)

The location that we have chosen to film our 2 minute opening sequence to a thriller is at a house down Douglas Avenue in Harold Wood. We have chosen this location as it is a down a quiet street so noise from main roads will not interfere with the filming, there will also be limited interferance from cars and pedestrians passing.

As the location is also quite secluded it fits in with a thrillers codes and conventions keeping the victim away from a large community. The house also represents a family home so when the protagonist approaches the house she feels safe from danger.

This is the hallway of the house that we will be filming in, again connoting a 'family' feel for the victim.

This is the living room of the loaction, again representing a family feel for the victim with her not suspecting anything about the owner.

This is the dining room of the house we will be filming in, this will probably just be used as a passing room from the kitchen and the living room.

This is the kitchen of the house where we will be filming, this room will only be used for showing the antagonist getting Melinda a glass of water and locking the back door.

Production Logo (Abigail Odum)

 I used the software Photoshop CS2 to create our production logo, I used the letters 'ABB' to represent the beginning of our names. I kept the colours dark as I wanted to represent the theme of our film. I knew how to use the software so I found it fairly easy to create our logo. I'm pleased with how it's turned out and I’m sure it will fit in well with our sequence.

Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)

Week 3

 We got a lot of things accomplished this week, in our 5-8 lesson we watched last year's preliminary tasks and it gave us an idea of what we had to do. We discussed the shots we were going to use in our preliminary task, and then we teamed up with another group to film the task.

 We encountered some difficulties at the beginning because none of us had any experience with a camera so we had to figure out how to work it gradually by experimenting and trying out different things with the camera. We filmed our preliminary three times before we got it right because we kept breaking the 180 degree rule, however practice makes perfect so after the second time we realised where we were going wrong and we fixed the problem by changing the shots. We finished editing our preliminary task, we created a YouTube account and we uploaded the preliminary task onto there and then we put it in our blog. Also we did an evaluation for the preliminary task.

 In addition we decided to change our thriller sequence title from 'Unsuspected Criminals' to just 'Unsuspected' this is because we thought the title we had before was too obvious and we just didn't like it so we changed it to maintain the mystery. Also we changed our font style to 'Cursive' and we made some changes to the layout of the page to make it look more presentable. As we read through our questionnaire we realised that some of the questions that we had didn't have anything to do with our sequence and wouldn't benefit us in any way so we improved some of the questions.

 We had a meeting during our 5-8 media lesson, we discussed our roles in detail and we shared out the tasks equally, we also talked about problems we may have encountered whilst doing the tasks. Genre research, our treatment, bbfc research and the codes and convention research have been completed. Next week we hope to have our production logo, location notes, cast notes and prop notes on our blog.