Storyboard (old)

 

What kind of institution would produce your film?

Vertigo Entertainment is the chosen company that I’ll wish to make my film. The reason for this is because Vertigo is a low budget English production company, which produce into the similar genre (thriller) resembling on our film. As our film is going to be a low budget film that would start 1 or 2 high profile actors

A similar film they made of our film would be “the roommate”. This is about a college student unveils that her new roommate has an obsession with her, which causes it to end up in violence. So this teen thriller resembles my film as our film is about a friends death causing the protagonist to think that he murdered his own friend however it was his best friend. This scene is similar to ours in our film as the stress and paranoia very well which allows you to tell that something is off about the friend.

 The ethos of the Vertigo Entertainment is that they use not so well known director but famous actors e.g. “the roommate” uses unknown directors such as Christian E. Christiansen which came from low budgets movie previously however they use well known actors such as Minka Kelly and Leighton Meester to start in their films. I would imagine that our movies wouldn’t be advertise worldwide but rather in select countries e.g England, America, All the major countered with large demands.

To fund the movie I would have to raise it from funds from the overseas as raising a significant amount of money would be hard to rise in 1 country alone. If it would raised by 1 country/firm alone it would a negative thing as the firm essentially has control over the whole film. My project would be shown in a chain cinema but showing in select countries. There would also be a DVD release for the production of our film worldwide. There wouldn’t be a paper view of my film however there might be after 6 months after the release of the film.

Our film company Vertigo Entertainment has specialised in the production in thriller/horror however they have started producing for animated films too. Some of their major hits are the Grudge, How to train your dragon and more... This would mean that they can use similar actors and props for our media thriller, which would save our production cost

Vertigo usually target their audience very well by knowing which particular age group to target. As they tend to specialise in a particular set of genres.

Reviewing of your Test Footage

In our test footage we filmed what we thought would be our opening sequence. However once we came to view the footage we decided to change the opening sequence around, nevertheless it gave us an idea how the whole sequence would look like. Therefore helping us build on our existing our idea.

The key substitutes we made in the test shot was that it would be based on the girls best friend bringing her into a party whereas the original idea was to have it so as she entered the club scene she was drugged with here friends as it seemed to hard to display her acting drugged.We also changed the fact the girl got an epileptic fit for her just lying there dead still as in the opening sequence when reviewed it seemed to be to comedic for the audience.

Our group had experimented with the use of extreme close up during the shot of the protagonist face when she is dead and when the drug got dropped in to the cup. This allowed the main focus to be on key events that happen during the opening sequence. We also used a high camera angle when the protagonist is drinking the alcoholic drink that is drugged as it help convey a sense of danger towards the audience.

This test footage allowed our group to understand the main fundamentals of a thriller sequence. As it highlighted all the positive and negatives of the test footage. What worked well from the test footage was the transition as non of them seemed to be out of place and suited well for the next scene. We also used continuity when the protagonist friend shut the door, which made it seemed very suspenseful when the protagonist entered the club. However when we tested out different camera angles such as having a high angle over the phone when the protagonist was texting, it seemed a to be out of place even when we used continuity when editing.

Once our group had reviewed the editing footage it seemed like too fake and reminded it of an adverts as the outcome of the thriller was too predictable. As when our group made the storyline it seemed to suit well however once we recorded it seemed to be too fake while our group was ignoring the mise en scene as that was only temporary as there seemed to be too much focus on the protagonist. Plus the location of the scene had been rejected by our media staff team as he stated that it is too hard to convey the party/nightclub atmosphere due to the timing and the number of actors involved.

Therefore due to this rejected idea for opening scene we decided to change the location and the time of the whole opening sequence in stead of changing our original idea. So we changed the location form being a nightclub/house party to a after party at a house. So the opening sequence wouldn't involve the audience seeing how the friend dies but of her friends going insane from her friends death. The main idea would be of the friends cleaning up the after party e.g. by cleaning up the bottles and scrubbing the floor... Then there would be a sudden jump cut to the friend staring at the bed then it reveal his friend lying on the bed death however the audience doesn't get to see the face of the dead friend.

Mood Board

Minute Meetings

Meeting 1 - Thursday 20th November

In this lesson , the group and we have changed our opening sequence idea to make it clearer by changing it from a country side rave to a house party/disco, we also changed it so that she was spiked instead of her having a fit as it seem more realistic.
We also decided that the sequence will start at the door and there is no bus scene (them arriving from a bus).

Our targets - Was to organise our practice shoot and decide where to film and what camera angles and scenes in particular order

Meeting 2 - Friday 21st November

In today's lesson, the group began to structure a storyboard including the shots we would like to use in the real shoot. As for the practice shoot, we planned where we will shoot this and what and who we will need. This included props such as a glass and a pill. It will obviously not look as professional as the real thing will. We also went over the general storyline in order to become more familiar with what we will be shooting.

Our Targets - include taking the story board into account when we film our practice shoot, and finding location which will fit our thriller.

Meeting 3 - Monday 24th November

In todays lesson we filmed our story board with an iPhone. We managed to find an actor who was available, with Rosie playing as the girl who dies after being spiked at a house party
An issue we found today was that we didn't fully follow our story board however we benefited as it was important to use spontaneity as it can encourage fresh ideas such an early point in the process.
Despite the fact that we are not entirely sure with the girl having the fit as it may reveal too much in the opening sequence, we still experimented to get the idea of how it would appear in the real thing.

What worked well - we used camera angles to created tension rather than ordinary angles for example when the drink got spiked, we filmed the glass with an extreme close up.

What didn't work well - Our group decided that the fit could have been a excess in the opening scene as maybe it revealed to much of the idea.

Our target - To watch the footage back and differentiate what we like and what we dislike about our main ideas

Meeting 4 - Tuesday 25th November

During this lesson a lot came to light. As we realised that we had dragged the sequence out more that we should have. As we edited the footage together we immediately realised that the shots didn't work such as the main characters calling her friend as it is irrelevant and isn't needed. We also noticed that we were concentrating on the protagonist to much making it seem like and "advert".

Target - Next meeting included on making our idea concrete i.e whether to have the set as a club or a rave


Minute meeting 5 - Tuesday 2nd of December

This lesson we had posted our test footage on YouTube which allowed every on in our group to post it on their blog. We also had started on our new storyboard for our opening sequence which allowed us to consider the production side of the thriller. As we have learn t all the faults in our test footage it gave us new and original ideas for our new opening scene.

Target - to develop the Storyboard even more which allows us to get ready for the next stage of production and to finish off the mood boards.


Minute meeting 6 - Thursday 4th of December

Today we continued working on our storyboard, but Rosie was absent so we will have to help her catch up. Since the last meeting we have also finished our mood boards and the reviews of our test shoot. Today we made a lot of progress with our storyboard today, but we had to extend the story line as it was seen to be to short

Target - for our next meeting is to finish the storyboard and upload it to our blogs.

Minute meeting 7 - Wednesday 10th December 

Today we assigned who is choosing costumes, set design,props and location. Alex has been assigned to do set design, Lucy is doing Props, Rosie is doing Location and I am doing Costumes

our target for next meeting is to have our lists ready with everything we need

Minute meeting 8 - Thursday 1st January

Today we had a meeting with the Media Studies department and they decided that our idea hadn't grabbed their intention enough therefore tomorrow our group are going to be re thinking of a new idea or modifying our previous idea.

Our target is going to be finalizing a 3 new ideas and choosing upon them

Minute meeting  - Friday 2nd January

Our group has made 4 new ideas on each of our group members and we went for the hit man idea as our group had a common interest with the idea.

Our target is to finalize the idea and build a story/opening sequence

Minute meeting  -Monday 5nd January

Today we had finalized our idea and I had started working on our storyboard, while the other crew members started working upon the location, props and costume

Our target is to complete the task given.

Minute meeting  -Tuesday 6th January

We have completed all our task except for the location as our group felt that we needed to find a location as a group over the weekend and take photos of them.

Minute meeting  -Wednesday 7th January

Our group has taken pictures of the two possible location that we will be using and our group has decided that we will be choosing the abandoned car park as it has a specific atmosphere that our group is trying to create

Our target is to bring in all the props to school so we have them in school. I will be finishing the shot list by tomorrow.
 
Minute meeting  -Thursday 8th January

Our group had brought in the costumes and have finished the shot list therefore our group will be waiting to shoot next Monday

Genre Audience and Institutions

Audiences relies heavily on the genre of the film as it allows them to clearly associate things they like with it i.e if your watching a psychological thriller they are expected to question and try solve the plot before its actually revealed. Or even if someone is watching a horror they are expected to get scared and terrified during the scary scenes.

Directors and institutes have most of the time stuck to a particular genre as it suits there style more or  due to it being more profitable i.e most of Warner Brothers tops are mostly all under the same genre, Adventure. By them knowing which genre they use the can also associate which actors are required to play that certain role (archetypes)

Film distribution companies use genres to target a specific audience for whom which enjoy that particular genre. This making it more profitable because if the film distribution companies distribute to the wrong audience it wont appeal to the right audience which may lead to the low ratings

Sub Genre

- A subcategory within a genre

Most genre's share similar links between other genres/sub genre therefore thriller as a whole is very diversified. While containing a high degree of similarity.

All similarity between all these 3 posters is that all of them are sci-fi thrillers. So far in all these movies the protagonist have all been male and they are clearly represented through the use of mise en scene as they are all positioned closest to the camera. The use on camera angles on all the posters seem to be at a high angle looking down on the characters which conveys them being as being the victims of the propaganda at hand.

My Opening sequence

My opening thriller sequence is a psychological thriller sub genre. As throughout out the film it makes the audience slightly confused and start to question. This makes more thrilling to be the audience as they have to think as well as try to understand the plot. It also consist of some action during the plot making it seem exiting and thrilling.

Genre Difference, Repetition and Similarity

Thriller genres can vary from each other a lot for example Gravity and Lucy. This films are both thrillers however they both seem so different. As both the characters are very contrasting as Lucy seems very powerful and always in control of the situation as for Gravity the protagonist is seen to be vulnerable and is never in control (in space). Also the mise en scene of the lighting was that it was a lot brighter and easier to see and gravity is very dark and lonely atmosphere (as one was set in space and one was on earth).

However in both of the films the protagonist are women which is a counter type for men being stronger then women. Tension is mostly created through the use of sound to make it seem more dramatic than it usually is

Introduction of Genre

Genre - Is a way of categorising media text
Example - Action, Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Horror, Romance, Thriller 
Sub Genre - A subcategory within a genre
Hybrid Genre - The combination between two genres (as they contains attributes of both)

Films within the same genre share common attributes for example for comedy they use smart and careful dialog to convey humor to the audience. As for horror films they use different camera angles such as high angle and low angle to convey who is the victim.

Reviewing my test shoot

Idea Carried forward

Original Ideas for the Thriller Sequence

Idea 1

Friend’s death makes others crazy

The first idea is about a teenager who finds out that his best friend had just committed suicide the day before and he was not expecting it, even though he and his friend got bullied on a daily basis. Since he is the only person in school that knows of his friend’s death he starts to build hatred inside of him. The main reason why he is the only person that knows about the death of his friend is because the principle decided it would be better not to affect everyone’s studies. Since nobody knows of his friend’s death everyone treats him the same way and carry on bullying him. Due to the absence of his friend they all mock him and his dead friend causing him to become mentally ill. Then he starts having suicidal thoughts too, but he felt in order of justice he believes he must kill one/all of the bullies. The ending would be that the protagonist father was the real cause of his friend’s death. Causing for his father to unsuccessfully attempt to kill his father sending him to a mental institute.

The opening scene would be of a protagonist siting down hesitating and shaking his head talking to himself, making himself seem crazy. Then he see’s one of the bullies and starts to follow him then he starts having flash backs of him crying from his friends death. Then the bully goes to the bathroom and there would be a close up the teenager smiling. 

Class Feedback

Positive - Was that the protagonist was of a kid, which made it seem more unexpected

              - What that the main focus would always be on him making him seem more innocent

              - Was that the protagonist was unsuccessful in killing his father

              - The opening sequence is very good and doesn't reveal to much

Negative - Need to have a better understanding of the plot 

                - Must develop more on how/why the father killed his friend

Idea 2 

Man forgets everyday

　

The second idea would be about a man who has amnesia and he can only remember certain parts of his day. However everything he does goes back to him being in a bed. It goes on like a cycle as every time he hears a voice/melody he goes back to him being in bed waking up. However each time he wakes up he cant remember anything so he leaves notes in his pockets to remind him of what he is locking for. So he goes outside to the town to find the voice/melody. Then as soon he finds the voice/melody he starts to remember everything of why and how he has amnesia, which breaks the cycle.

The opening scene would be him hearing the voice/melody then it fades to white and he walks up. Then he looks around the house looking at the pictures and then as he goes outside he puts his hands in his pocket and notices he has a note. Then as he opening it the audience see his emotions and it cuts

Idea 3 

Mother is back with her lies from the dead

The third idea is about a boy who waits outside a shop/school everyday in order for his dad to pick him up and one day he starts to talk to these women whom wears old vintage clothing. However this woman is actually the dad’s wife whom passed away 10 years ago. Therefore the son starts talking about this women and the dad just thinks nothing of it. Until one day the son finds a picture at home that looks like the women he is talking to and tells the dad that, that’s the women he was talking to. Then the boy tries to prove it by bringing the dad to the spot where she always is but she isn’t there. So the dad goes to ask his friend a sociologist about the problem and he tells him there is nothing to be bothered about as its quite common. Until the boy see’s the woman again and then he asks her if she is his mother mother then she starts to smile saying yes. The mother starts to tell all this lies of the father and said that he is the reason why I am like this. The boy starts to question to the dad of all his sins and he explains to his son about the truth of his mother as she died in the car crash. The father tells his son never to talk to the women again. Then they boy never see’s her again… Until he tells the dad that mommy wont let him fall asleep in his room.

The opening would be of a boy wearing school uniform walking to the shop/school to wait for his dad to pick him up. Then the boy notices women wearing odd and strange cloths. Then she asks the boy what he is waiting for. The he replied, “I am waiting for my daddy” and then she askes how about you mom? He says that she died a long time ago. Then the dad comes in his car and the audience notices the boy alone talking to nobody as the car drives up.

Idea 4

Who is the real liar?

The fourth idea would be of a teenage boy who finds a picture of himself in the newspaper as a missing child and they should contact the police straight away if he is found. Then it makes the boy question who the people living in his home are and that what they want from him. So he runs away and starts to find out the truth behind his family as they kidnapped him since he was young and raised him and that his family killed his real mother while they were kidnapping him.

The opening scene would be of the teenage boy reading the newspaper looking at his family from his dad to the mother. Then he asks his parents why don’t they have any photos of him when he was younger, then they reply because we couldn’t afford a camera back then. Then it jumps to him calling the police saying that he is the boy missing from the newspaper, then you hear the door banging loudly shouting open the door.

Genre

Definition

Genre - Is a way of categorising media text
Sub Genre - A subcategory within a genre
Hybrid Genre - The combination between two genres (as they contains attributes of both)

Why is genre used?
- This allows the media text to market the film towards a target audience
- Warner brother uses this to find out which films have made them the most profit

What are genre conventions?
- What you expect from the genre

Thriller

What is a thriller genre ?
Uses suspense and tension to create an exciting plot

Conventions of a thriller

Characters: 
-Protagonist are usually stereotypical bold men who are trying to restore justice.
-Antagonist usually goes against the protagonist and his reasons are usually justified by his past.

Sound 
Tends to be used in order to set the scene eg their mood. The use of slow pace music is used when they are revealing something to the audience. When its fast paced music it introduces some action or to build suspense and tension

Editing
When there is a use of a cross fade it helps to show the relationship between the characters.There also tends to be a lot of jump cuts in order to make it seem more chaotic and exciting.

Mise en scene
Tends to be in dark lighting to make ti seem more mysterious and dangerous. The costume tends to be binary opposites between the Protagonist and the Antagonist, as the protagonist would be in bright cloths and the antagonist would be in dark coloured as it signifies evil.

Sub-genres of thriller

Action Thriller
- Die Hard (1988), Air Force One (1997)

Conspiracy Thriller

- JFK (1991)

Crime Thriller
- No Country for Old Men (2007)

Disaster Thriller
- Final Destination (2000)

Erotic Thriller

- Body Heat (1989)

Legal Thrillers
- A Few Good Men (1982), The Truth can be Adjusted (2007)

Medical Killer
- Awake (2007)

Psychological Thrillers
- Se7en (1995), The Mechinist (2004)

Political Thriller
- The Ides of March (2011)
 

Religious Thriller
- The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Spy Thriller
- The Bourne Identity (2002)

Supernatural Thriller
- The Sixth Sense (1999)

Prelim Task

How successful were we?

Our end result can be seen as quite successful. This is because we considered some of the basic editing techniques. Since this is our first time it allowed us to because more experience with the post production of the film. This also allowed use to get use to using Adobe Premier and the Sony NX5.

On the camera work we have considered most of the rules such as the 180 degree rule and when we film a scene the actors need to repeat everything they need as this allows for there to be continuity. Then when you edit it would make it seem like it has cleaner cuts allowing for it to flow more easily.

Editing for the Prelim Task

Editing

I have been using Adobe after effects previously and it has some similarities with Adobe Premier(program we are currently using). Therefore I have learned how to use Adobe Premier with all the basic feature included. Bring some knowledge from my previous experience of Adobe After Effects




 After we downloaded our clips (rushes) into Premier, then we begin to put the clops into a log bin in order to ensure that we always had an extra original copy.  Then we begin to cut and drag the clips onto the storyline. We had to ensure that after every two minutes we had to save our file encase the computer was to crash.

Different editing techniques

Continuity - This is used to connect disconnecting shots from a scene. This allows the view to view things in better detail i.e when there is a wide shot of the family dinner then it goes to a close up of the dad picking up a drink. This allows the audience things to see things that we don't normally see (in real life) showing minor.

Cutting on Action/Temporal Continuity - Its scenes end when the actor is on action. This works by cutting you shots while the actor is moving i.e if someone is about to cut a dead man up, the scene would end as the knife goes down.

The exception - This is when continuity is used in order to show different events at the same time i.e party montages when different areas of the party are doing different things.This is usually accompanied by the use of non - digetic music

Preliminary Task

My group was given a prelim task storyboard, which we has to follow and it was based on two people arguing. We had to follow the prelim task storyline however we were allowed to add extra detail after we finished the task.

During filming our actors had to take time off the production in order to learn the scripts. This meant that we had less time film using the camera so next time we would have made the actors remember the script beforehand so less time would be wasted.

The scene was set for us so we had to adapt to the situation, as we had to keep changing the camera position. Next time we would plan before hand where which camera would be placed while considering the 180 degree rule at all times and we would look at the scene before hand.

We had mostly very good shots but at times we would only have 1 shot. In the future I will make sure I get at least 2 or 3 shots as if there is a problem with that one shot we always have spares. As you can never have to many shots

When we were using the camera we didn't always refocus the camera after it was moved. Next time we would ensure that after we move the camera we would zoom into something specific and refocus and take the shot and the same applies for how balanced the camera is. Another thing is that we had sometimes forgotten to say "Stand by, camera rolling, Start" in order to make sure no one disturbs us

Camera Workshop - lesson 2

180 degree rule
- two characters should always have the same left and right relationship to each other

*This rule helps keep the viewer focused which avoids confusion. This is done as once a scene is set then the camera must stay on one side of the action.

If two people are facing each other you must stay within the line vision. The line usually is straight down the middle between two people like the picture above(left). Once the line of vision is established then the camera can move anywhere as long as it stays on same side of the line while filming.

If the camera goes past the line of vision then it will look like they have changed position. This is used while filming sports e.g. football.

This is a marking on the floor, which helps the actors know where to position themselves. As they will have get filmed several of times in order to for the shot to have different angles to build effect. 

This is helpful when the director has to have serval shots for example one shot of a guy picking up tape (medium shot) and a shot of the hand picking up the tape (extreme close up)