In today's 5-8 lessons we learnt how to use the camera and set up the tripod. We were also shown how to put the tape into the camera and how to film and edit a short scene. This was very helpful as it gave us an idea of what was required from us in the preliminary task.We were set this task to create a fluent piece of filming before making our actual thriller to ensure our capability and for general practise.
Our preliminary task involved filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. In this exercise the majority of the shots we used were medium shots and close-up shots. After planning the shots we were going to use we started filming. We experimented with a range of shots and we came up with a short dialogue for our task.
We decided to film the short task in the college library however when we finished and looked back at the footage we realised that we had broken the 180 degree rule so we had to film it all over again. The second time we chose to film in B block, we filmed according to plan but once again when we looked back on the footage we had broken the 180 degree rule. The third time we filmed at the same place but we changed a few things around, and we finally got it right.
As Billy's role is editor, he learnt how to use the software Final cut pro to edit the footage and after that we uploaded the footage onto our YouTube account.
Preliminary Task Evaluation (Abigail Odum)
BBFC Research (Abigail Odum)
The British board of film classification (BBFC) are the people who decide what certificate movies and some DVD’s and video games should be. This is very important and started when young people began to watch films which were inappropriate for their age. The BBFC was set up in 1912 for cinema screening however it also started to put age certificates on videos and DVD’s since 1984. They take many factors into consideration when classifying a film. They look at Language, Horror, Drugs, Imitable behaviour, Nudity, Sex, Discrimination, Theme and Violence.- Our film contains one scene of violence however it's not particularly strong. There are no verbal references to sexual violence; there will be no portrayal of sexual violence in our film.
Treatment ( Rebecca Ogunmola)
Our product is an opening two minute thriller sequence called 'Unsuspected'. The marketing campaign in which we are going to use would be accessed on many platforms such as the internet, TV, newspapers and billboards. With the use of our product being advertised on the internet it allows us to target our audience in an efficient way as it makes it easy for the consumers to access the product, especially as facebook and youtube are sites that are accessed by a high percentage of the population. With the use of proliferation on our blog we are able to get feed back from our target audience.
Target audience
Media language
Our company’s logo is called ABB productions. Our product will be distributed across the internet through many different mediums such as the internet, newspapers TV etc which enables us to target consumers globally.
Representation
Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)
Week 2
This week we made a few changes to our 2 min synopsis as we felt that the storyline wasn't that great so we came up with a completely new concept and we are happy with it now. In addition we made a questionnaire to allow people to vote on our blog and to also give us feedback. Also as a group we decided to create a Thriller sequence as we preferred that genre and after reading through the genre research, we understood the genre a lot more.
We created a shot list for our preliminary task and we also did research on the 30 degree rule and the 180 degree rule. By next week we hope to make a start on filming our preliminary task and also editing it.
The 30 Degree Rule (Abigail Odum)
The 180 Degree Rule (Abigail Odum)
Basically this means that when filming you shouldn’t cross the line of vision, this is an invisible line that has been established in the first shot. This is because it will disorient the viewer as the character’s position on screen will switch. The rule must never be broken however some film makers purposefully break the rule to disorient the viewer. An example is that in a car chase scene, if the car is travelling from right to left, the next shot must also be shot from the same side. This helped us as we were filming our preliminary because it gave as an insight of what the rule was about and how to stick to the 180 degree rule whilst filming.
This helped us as we were filming our preliminary because it gave as an insight of what the rule was about and how to stick to the 180 degree rule whilst filming.
Thriller Sub-Genres (Abigail Odum)
Thriller films are difficult to put a definition on, this is mainly because they can cover a range of different types of films. A few different types of thrillers can be seen below:
• Action thriller: In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place. These films often have elements of mystery films and crime films but these elements take a backseat to action. Some examples include the James Bond films and The Transporter.
• Crime thriller: This particular genre is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers that offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman. Crime thrillers usually emphasize action over psychological aspects. Central topics of these films include murders, robberies, chases, shootouts, and double-crosses are central ingredients. Some examples include Seven and Reservoir Dogs.
• Drama thriller: In which the story consists of the elements of a thriller and drama film. These films are usually slower paced and involve a great deal of character development along with plot twists. Some examples include The Illusionist and The Prestige.
• Eco-thriller: In which the protagonist must avert or rectify an environmental or biological calamity, often in addition to dealing with the usual types of enemies or obstacles present in other thriller genres. This environmental component often forms a central message or theme of the story. Examples include Nicholas Evans's The Loop, C. George Muller's Echoes in the Blue, and Wilbur Smith's Elephant Song, all of which highlight real-life environmental issues. Futuristic eco-thrillers are of the science fiction genre that propose ideas that will or may occur. Some examples include Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and Ian Irvine's Human Rites Trilogy.
• Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. Some examples include Shadow of a Doubt and Blue Velvet.
• Religious thriller: In which the plot is closely connected to religious objects, institutions and questions. While suspense stories have always shown a significant affinity for religion and philosophical issues. Some examples include The Name of the Rose and The Da Vinci Code.
Our sequence falls under the action thriller category as the audience don't witness any violence in the opening sequence however it's there will be elements of action in our 90 minuite film.
Source used: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)
Featured Film Synopsis (Billy Camden)
David Smith (23) was an employee hired by a man named Stephen Brown and has recently been fired from his job, leaving David with no money and bankrupt. Davids idea is to kidnap Stephen Browns daughter name Jessica (16). David sees her walking home from college one day and follows her, forcing her to run away and search for help. Jessica sees a woman in a window named Melinda Fox (20), and goes to her for help, but what Jessica does not know is that David has paid Melinda to capture Jessica in her home and then when she is in there, David will kidnap her. David ends up kidnapping Jessica and takes her to a place which is very hostile and remote.
The next day Stephen Brown rings up the police and reports his daughter missing, then a search for Jessica begins. Stephen then receives a phone call that same day from David, David tells Stephen that he is holding his daughter for ransom, and will only release her for a sum of £5,000,000. David then puts down the phone and Stephen reports the phone call to the police.
After a few days David is approached by Melinda (the woman who set up the kidnap) and she explains how she has heard of the ransom sum of £5,000,000 David is holding over Jessica, she explains that she wants a sum of that money for helping David before, David refuses and Melinda goes on to explain how she will tell the police if he does not respond to her wishes. David turns on her and beats her up and explains that if she ever did tell the police of what happened and what David is doing then he will kill her and she will never see a spec of money again. He then throws her out and she says "I'm gonna get you for this, and the money, I'm going to get every last penny!".
As a few weeks pass on Stephen and the police are trying to search for David and Jessica by tracing the phone call and trying to ring that number back. After a numerous number of failures, Stephen receives an unsuspected phone call from his daughter Jessica, saying where she is, whos holding her captive and what to do. She tells her dad to meet her and David at an old rust yard tomorrow. As Stephen agrees to this David takes hold of the phone and begins to talk to Stephen, explaining that Stephen should come unarmed without any police or any other people with him and with the £5,000,000. He also explains that he will have five men with him, all armed with guns and if Stephen turns up with any police then David and his men will kill Stephen and his daughter Jessica. Stephen agrees and both men put down the phones.
The next day, Stephen prepares all of the money in a brief case and prepares to leave, as he leaves he is approached by a number of police officers who hear that Stephen is about to meet with David and they try and convince Stephen to let them go with him and arrest David, but Stephen thinks of his daughter and says no to the police, not telling them where he is meeting them and who David is with and leaves to collect his daughter.
Stephen arrives at the old rust yard alone, and after 5 minutes of waiting David and his 5 men arrive with Jessica. The two men exchange words and then discuss how the exchange is going to be made. David wants Stephen to hand over the money first and then he will release Jessica, but Stephen is reluctant and insists that David passes over his daughter first. Suddenly David pulls out a gun and points it to Jessica's head and says to David that if he doesn't pass over the money now he will shoot Jessica. Stephen tries to calm David down and swiftly passes the money over to him. As David receives the money he pushes Jessica over to Stephen, he then points the gun at her and says "you should never have sacked me Stephen" and a gun shot is sounded. Everything is silent and the audience believe that David has shot Jessica but as the camera has a shot of the back of David, you see him fall down slowly and it is shown that David has been shot. Stephen and Jessica are still standing there believing David has pulled the trigger but as they look up they see a squad rant of police officers arresting Davids men and see David laying on the floor.
The head investigator of the police approaches Stephen and explains how the police tracked down the location of the meeting between Stephen and David and how they new David was going to try and kill both Stephen and Jessica. After a the police have finished, and returned the money back to Stephen, he takes Jessica to the hospital so they can see if she has suffered from anything, after she has been checked they both go back to their home. As they arrive at their house Stephen notices that the window is open in the side alley of their house. Stephen tells Jessica to wait in the hall way whilst he sees what the window is doing open. He goes to the window and closes it. He then says "don't worry honey, false alarm" and as he turns around he is smashed on the head with a golf club by a shadowed person. Jessica is trying to speak to her dad but she receives no response as Stephen is nocked out. Then appearing from the shadows comes Melinda who had helped David kidnap Jessica. She begins to explain what she has done and as the intensity grows Melinda approaches the scared and frightened Jessica and says "what's the matter? a little 'unsuspected'?" and knocks her out. You then see Melinda walk out the door with the briefcase that contains the £5,000,000.
Weekly Updates (Abigail Odum)
Week 1
Over the last week we have set up a group account and our individual accounts on Blogger and we have hyperlinked it. Also we sorted out the group roles; this went smoothly without any arguments. The roles are Rebecca Ogunmola is the director, Billy Camden is the editor and I have taken on the role as the camera man.
We created our brain storm and uploaded it onto our blog, also we did our 2min synopsis and the script for our film which we uploaded onto ‘Scribed’ then put it on our blog. We struggled in the 90 min synopsis task as we hadn't figured out the rest of the story so we had to get together in our own time and figure out the storyline. We were confident in completing the rest of the tasks. We changed the layout on our page to make it relate to our storyline.
We plan on getting our questionnaire, research on 30 degree rule, research on the 180 degree rule, sub-genre research and preliminary shot list completed by next week.
Opening sequence ( Rebecca Ogunmola)
Unsuspected
A girl called Jessica (aged 16) is being chased by a man called David (aged 21). She runs as fasts as she possible can to get away from him as she is running she is looking for someone to help her, she spots a house with a young woman through a window cleaning. Jessica approaches the house to ask for help as she is exhausted from running. She knocks on the door, which is opened by a pleasant young woman; Jessica is crying and pleading for help. The woman notices the fear and desperation in Jessica’s face, Melinda, young woman (aged 21) lets her in her house and offers to help her by calling the police and promises everything would be okay and that he would never hurt her, as she closes the door then locks it. Melinda sits Jessica down and offers her a drink. Melinda then leaves the room and goes to call the police.
Ten minutes later there is a Melinda still hasn't return and Jessica is confused and impatient. Jessica calls out but there is no answer, she gets up to go and check on Melinda, but as she gets to the kitchen she notices the door being open, a cup on the floor and as she walks towards the phone on the table she sees that the batteries have been taken out. She runs out of the kitchen and into the living room she notices all the doors being open, worried and confused she runs out of the living room to try and escape but as she passes through the corridor she gets grabbed by an unsuspected figurer.
Codes and Conventions ( Rebecca Ogunmola)
The codes and conventions of a production allow the audience to identify what genre the film is. Within our opening sequence we aim to apply thriller codes and conventions to give it the characteristic which our film requires to make it effective. With the use of elements of sound and editing such as quick cuts, different camera angles as well as many changes and with music that delivers the feeling of tension as well as an upbeat racy sound to match the action etc. also the use of lighting elements such as shadow, mirrors and stairs as they are also conventions of thriller movies that can possibly be implemented in.
The narrative of a thriller convention usually show what is happening from two points of view one being of the protagonist which involves the audience more in events and creates empathy for the character and the other of the antagonist. A thriller must also have a sense of reality in realistic locations and realistic situations, and also have everyman qualities which allow the audience to relate to the character.
Enigmas are usually created at the opening sequence of a thriller and then as the film proceeds on questions are answered but mostly at the end of the film. Enigmas are created in a way in which the audience is drawn towards the film which makes them want to watch more.
Mise-en-scene is a form of convention, elements of Mise-en scene which are normally used in thrillers are mostly dim lighting hiding parts to a character, large threatening weapons for props e.g. large knives, guns etc. Camera shots are normally point of view shots, frames within frames, or close ups. Often there is also a lot of camera movement. Colors are also used to signify different emotions like red connotes blood or danger, blue cold mystery or death.
Themes that are usually associated in thrillers are mostly themes of manipulation, of perspective, doppelgangers. Isolation and entrapment are commonly used themes as well. Murder and terrorism are themes that are mainly associated within society which gives it more of a realistic feeling.
Genre Research (Billy Camden)
"There's no narrow definition. According to International Thriller Writers, a thriller is characterized by" the sudden rush of emotions, the excitement, and sense of suspense, apprehension, and exhilaration that drive the narrative, sometimes subtly with peaks and lulls, sometimes at a constant, breakneck pace." In short, a thriller thrills, mostly through skilful plotting.
Thriller is a genre of fiction in which tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world. Part of the allure of thrillers comes from not only what their stories are about, but also how they are told. High stakes, non-stop action, plot twists that both surprise and excite, settings that are both vibrant and exotic, and an intense pace that never lets up until the adrenalin packed climax"
Some of the information above was taken from http://www.findmeanauthor.com/thriller_fiction_genre.htm
This gave me an outline of what the thriller genre means and includes. It also helped us in deciding to definitely go with the genre thriller instead of another thriller such as horror. Bearing in mind the research I have found out this is my understanding of the genre thriller which was helped by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_ (genre) website.
The genre of thriller follows many characteristics that make the genre very distinctive as opposed to horrors (which are commonly mixed up). These characteristics often include a villain driven plot in which presents obstacles for the hero to overcome. There is always a protagonist and an antagonist, the protagonist is usually represented as a hard man who has to take physical action to defeat the antagonist, generally the protagonist is often male but recently females have been introduced to this role, evidence of this is in 'Alien'. Again the Antagonist is often shown to be male but not generally a ‘hard man’ but someone who is smart, strong minded and ready for death. Recently females have been introduced to this role; clear evidence of this is in ‘Saw II’ where the female turns out to be an accomplice of the male antagonist.
The genre is very flexible and undermines the audience complacency by throwing in dramatic twists psychologically, socially, familial and politically. The thrillers location and setting are usually key features which distinguish this genre; thrillers often take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts, Polar Regions, or high seas.
Thrillers are wide spread and create sub-genres. The sub-genres include action thriller, conspiracy thriller, crime thriller, disaster thriller, drama thriller, erotic thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, political thriller, psychological thriller, spy thriller, techno thriller and religious thriller. All of these have characteristics that keep them in the thriller genre but can have distinguishing features which separate each sub-genre from each other.