Ashley and jordanFriday, 9 December 2011
Wednesday, 7 December 2011
The collage we created here is an example of different editing we used on the pictures. On the top left photo we upped the brightness, contrast and made the colours stand out more. On the bottom left we went for a more natural edit and focused on brown/tertiory colours. On the top right, we used a black and whit effect so that the picture looked old and darker. On the bottom right we used a sepia colour so that colour was not a primary aspect of the shot, it was more to do with the objects within the shot.
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Ideas for music...
The first song is taken from the film 'SalÒ' (1975) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLdO-qkY1pQ - this could possibly be used as the foreground music for our scenes which involve the girl running away and the scenes in the basement.
The second song is 'Pictures' by Benjamin Francis Leftwich - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6N3jUDKzq0 - This music I think would fit perfectly with the scenes where the story shows the reminiscence of the girls past where she would be able to be with her family. However we would probably own use snippets of this track to go along with the track from 'SalÒ'
Jordan
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
More editing from iStock...
More editing within preview, so a pretty standard operating tool within an image software, in this photo I have tried making everything much more glum and harsh, with just a tiny bit of light, but keeping the image low exposured. As you can see from the image below the levels have all been adjusted to create this new image.
Jordan
Friday, 25 November 2011
Trailer for 'Orphan'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ywOPNNii9w - This is the trailer for 'Orphan' and in this clip we see how young women are represented in a different way compared to 'Hanna'.
Trailer for Hannah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugireeCoYyU -In the trailer for 'Hanna' we pick up more ideas about a film being based around a main young female character, from this we can take ideas on how young women are represented within films.
This is the moodboard i created on the other main chracters within our film. In the centre of the moodbaord is a picture of Joef Fritzel and Rosmarie Fritzel. As we are basing our film around the story of the daughter of the Fritzel's, i felt it important to get evidence of what the fritzels look like, this is because we can use the Fritzels as an inspirtation of what our other characters will look like. When searching for simular looks to Josef fritzel, i tried looking for middle-later aged men that have a distinguished look. For example, the picture in the bottom right hand corner, has a very mencaing look and his eyes are very distinguishable, this is a simularity to Fritzel. I also looked for men with facial hair, especially someone with a moustache as a moustache in the modern day is not as popular as beards. This means that the character would look more individual and will stay in a persons mind for a long time. I also took an image from the human centipede 2. I did this because the man is a notorious chracter that is hard to forget. He is my main inspiration for the male character that i would like to cast. When searching for different looks that are simular to Rosmarie Fritzel, i looked for middle aged-later aged women who dont particularly stand out. The kind of people you wouldnt acknowledge in a big crowd. I felt this was necessary becuase it brings a greater sense of naturlism into our film. This is important becuase our storyline is uncommon and hard to relate to so i feel the characters should be relatable in some aspect. Also when looking for appearances i would like to base the women character in our film, i tried to look for someone with short, big, light coloured hair and a wrinkly worn face. I particulary would like the women character in our film to be wrinkly because it shows she has lived and has many stories in her past. It also gives her the motherly look rather than casting someone on my age, 16-17 which wont inform the audience that the women is the girls mother. Therefore we would be able to elminate any unessecary confusion.
Rebeccca
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
This is the moodboard i created on location. I decided to look for shots within a forest or basement. This is because the only locations we will be filming are a forest and a basement. I particulary looked for dark forest shots with a visble pathway. This is because for one of our main shots there is a girl running in the distance through a visble pathway in a forest. Therefore some of these shots are effective because we can replicate them into our film. When looking for basement shots, i looked for dark pictures with minimal objects. This is because i feel the audience would feel more sympathetic for the character if she is living in a bland, dark, emput surrounding. I also added shots of stairs as we will be filming the man going down the stairs at different angles.Rebecca
Monday, 21 November 2011
This is a moodboard i created on the main character in our film. when looking for appropriate and reelatable images i looked for images of sad young girls, who were obviously devastated over something. I found some of these images particulary effective as they were images of girls on steps. This is good becasue we can replicate these images into our film. Rebecca
Friday, 4 November 2011
Questions for Focus Group
Questions for Focus Group
What do you expect to get from a thriller?
Suspense Mystery Violence Fear Other (If so state)
Where would you expect a thriller to be set?
City Rural Abandoned house Other
What sort of music would you expect to hear?
Fast/Upbeat tempo Eerie and slow Sequacious/Clashy Fast and exhilarating
What layout do you expect a thriller film to be in?
Black and White Colour No preference
In the Opening scene what do you expect to see?
Action scene Summary of the main character e.g what he does, who he is?
A scenario to play out the rest of the film?
How does a conventional thriller film come across to you as a viewer?
Which Thriller films have you seen recently, State those that you have enjoyed and why you enjoyed them? What seperates that film to others?
Finally, we have come up with a few names for our thriller film, we are undecided on which one to use. So out of the following which name do you think suggests a slight 'innocence' whilst maintaining the need for excitement.
-HER STORY
-ANNABÉLLE
-RUNAWAY
-STORY OF ANNABÉLLE
Monday, 17 October 2011
Goodfellas
Goodfellas
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert diNero
New York, 1970
Credits - sound like traffic
Camera on car
Shows time and place
Sets the tone of how the film is going to be throughout
Meets the main character
Natural lighting
Narration on the main character
Shows that the whole film is going to be violent
Shows the mens status, powerful / criminals
Cast is all men
The music juxtaposes the scene as the music is upbeat and happy whilst a murder is occurring.
Brutality throughout
Ashley, Jordan & Rebecca
Almost there on our final idea...
So far our plot consists of the following, this could either be a narration/ voice over during the beginning scene which tells the story or just be there for the plot.
In October 17th 2003 a 10 year old girl is taken hostage and treated inhumane. This story follows her life through the years of her captivity, her abuse and her flaunted attempts of escape. Whether or not we will let you know who has taken her has yet to be decided - silhouettes mainly our key idea... this way the audience will carry on predicting whether we are going to give the identity of this unknown character/group or not...
We have a mixed view upon where to set our film, however all locations of filming must be relevant to our story-line. There will be pictures of our setting up on our blog as soon as possible after editing and further discussion of where everything is going to be filmed... We are also trying to work out whether to play a backing track or to keep with a narration...
Jordan, Rebecca and Ashley
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Camerawork
Camerawork
Close-Up
Shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object and shows the importance of things, such as words written on paper, or the expression on someones face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality, we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face - mothers, children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required framing.
Extreme Close-Up
As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail whatsoever. This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect. The tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the shot - the slightest camera shake or error in focal length is very noticeable.
Medium Shot
Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the two shot, containing two figures from the waist up, and the three shot, contains 3 figures. Any more than three figures and the shots tend to become a long shot. Background detail is minimal, probably because location has been established earlier in the scene - the audience already know where they are and now want to focus on dialogue and character interaction. Another variation in this category is the over-the-shoulder-shot, which positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder.
Long Shot
This is the most difficult to categorise precisely, but is generally one which shows the image as approximately "life" size i.e. corresponding to the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema, the figure of a man would appear as six feet tall. This category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges.
Pans
A movement which scans a scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod, which operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.
High Angle
Not so extreme as a bird's eye view. The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less significant (or scary). The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting - they become part of a wider picture.
Low Angle
These increase height (useful for short actors like Tom Cruise or James McAvoy) and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.
The Bird's-Eye view
This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from this angle might seem totally unrecognisable at first (umbrellas in a crowd, dancers' legs). This shot does, however, put the audience in a godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of things. Hitchcock (and his admirers, like Brian de Palma) is fond of this style of shot.
Worms eye view
A worm's-eye view is a view of an object from below, as though the observer were a worm; the opposite of a bird's-eye view. A worm's eye view is used commonly for third perspective when you put one vanishing point on top, one on the left, and one on the right.
Tilt
Moving the camera up or down without raising its position; like panning, to follow a subject or to show the top and bottom of a stationary object. With a tilt, you can also show how high something is. For example, a slow tilt up a Giant Sequoia tree shows its grandness and enormity.
Shot reverse shot
Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Point of view shot
A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.
Over the shoulder shot
In film or video, an over the shoulder shot (also over shoulder, OS, OTS, or third-person shot) is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of whatever (or whomever) the camera is pointing toward
The 180° rule
In film making, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states those two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.
Ashley, Jordan & Rebecca
Close-Up
Shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object and shows the importance of things, such as words written on paper, or the expression on someones face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality, we only let people that we really trust get THAT close to our face - mothers, children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. A film-maker may use this to make us feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character, and usually uses a zoom lens in order to get the required framing.
Extreme Close-Up
As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail whatsoever. This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect. The tight focus required means that extra care must be taken when setting up and lighting the shot - the slightest camera shake or error in focal length is very noticeable.
Medium Shot
Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the two shot, containing two figures from the waist up, and the three shot, contains 3 figures. Any more than three figures and the shots tend to become a long shot. Background detail is minimal, probably because location has been established earlier in the scene - the audience already know where they are and now want to focus on dialogue and character interaction. Another variation in this category is the over-the-shoulder-shot, which positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder.
Long Shot
This is the most difficult to categorise precisely, but is generally one which shows the image as approximately "life" size i.e. corresponding to the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema, the figure of a man would appear as six feet tall. This category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges.
Pans
A movement which scans a scene horizontally. The camera is placed on a tripod, which operates as a stationary axis point as the camera is turned, often to follow a moving object which is kept in the middle of the frame.
High Angle
Not so extreme as a bird's eye view. The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less significant (or scary). The object or character often gets swallowed up by their setting - they become part of a wider picture.
Low Angle
These increase height (useful for short actors like Tom Cruise or James McAvoy) and give a sense of speeded motion. Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.
The Bird's-Eye view
This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from this angle might seem totally unrecognisable at first (umbrellas in a crowd, dancers' legs). This shot does, however, put the audience in a godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of things. Hitchcock (and his admirers, like Brian de Palma) is fond of this style of shot.
Worms eye view
A worm's-eye view is a view of an object from below, as though the observer were a worm; the opposite of a bird's-eye view. A worm's eye view is used commonly for third perspective when you put one vanishing point on top, one on the left, and one on the right.
Tilt
Moving the camera up or down without raising its position; like panning, to follow a subject or to show the top and bottom of a stationary object. With a tilt, you can also show how high something is. For example, a slow tilt up a Giant Sequoia tree shows its grandness and enormity.
Shot reverse shot
Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.
Point of view shot
A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character's reaction (see shot reverse shot). The technique of POV is one of the foundations of film editing.
Over the shoulder shot
In film or video, an over the shoulder shot (also over shoulder, OS, OTS, or third-person shot) is a shot of someone or something taken from the perspective or camera angle from the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of whatever (or whomever) the camera is pointing toward
The 180° rule
In film making, the 180° rule is a basic guideline that states those two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Discussing other thrillers...
... Carrying on our search for a base to our thriller film we have been looking further into the comparison between the way that the layout of a thriller TV series to a Thriller film. So far we have looked at 'Supernatural', 'Heat', 'Se7en (seven)', 'Sin City', 'Goodfella's', 'Resevoir Dogs' and personally we have take many ideas from each of these films and tried to convey a situation that would fit what we want in our opening two minutes of our thriller. Now we have started to look into other types of thriller: psychological and horror thrillers, we have been looking at even more openings of thriller TV series, such as: 'The Walking Dead' and the 'CSI' chain. 'The Walking Dead' started off as a massive hit that was meant to stay in America only, however because it was such a massive hit, they decided to bring it to the UK and then to follow in the rest of Europe 6 months after. The pilot episode for me was completely essential for the rest of the series, because of the way they introduce you to the characters and give you this amazing story layout. Personally being a big horror-thriller fan I was intrigued to carry on watching within the first 30 seconds because it was just perfect for camerawork and the editing. 'CSI' on the other hand is fairly straight forward because it tells you whats gonna happen throughout their episodes within the first scene - which is what we want ! but obviously not having sufficient access to the same sort of CGI and props means that we can't really base it on this, however we can look at the layout of the opening scene.
Jordan
Jordan
se7en
Se7en
Dir; David Fincher
Starring; Morgan Freeman - order meticulous (ODC)
Brad Pitt
Diegetic sound
Meets main characters
Pathetic fallicy
Film is based through seven days
Sets scene - overly clean house (because of Morgan Freemans ODC)
Rains throughout the film until the last scene
Neo Noir - modern film noir
opening credits is part of the film
Ashley, Jordan, Rebecca
Taking Ideas From Supernatural...
Okay so now we have started looking at TV series' as well as films to get a wider perspective of the word thriller. The first one we have started to look at is 'Supernatural' and what we decided to take were ideas from the way that they open their episodes. We know instantly what happens within the first two/three minutes, most of them are opened within a dark, nightly atmosphere - which conveys its plot throughout the rest of the episode, which ends up solving the msytery. Still trying to think about the key TV series/ Films to base our thriller on....
Jordan
Jordan
Saturday, 8 October 2011
More Ideas for our thriller ...
... Carrying on from our last blog, we have been thinking more in to detail about take certain elements from films, for example: The film-noir base, grainy effects, dominant colours, types of shots we want to use in our opening two minutes of our film. So this time we looked at another idea, this time taken from Frank Miller's grainy, film-noir creation 'Sin City'. In this film us as viewers intrigued at the opening scene, so bringing up a past experience of watching the film we decided to sit down and watch the whole film to refresh our memories. The points that we loved during the film personally was the subtlety of the killing in the opening scene and the 1950's grainy, film-noir layout with a dominant colour, Red. We also picked up on the narration which evaluates and scrutinizes the other characters during the film, we thought that it was really clever and the fact that it indicated what the reader couldnt taste or smell. 'Sin City' would be perfect to base our thriller film on however we are looking to go for the opening of the film, where straight from the start, the audience is put into the situation where they need to analyse what is going on and what they think is going to happen in the rest of the film.
Jordan
Jordan
Top 10 Selling Thriller Films (In Order)
1) Pulp Fiction
2) The Dark Knight
3) Inception
4) Goodfella's
5) Rear Window
6) Psycho (1960)
7) The Silence of The Lambs
8) The Usual Suspects
9) Se7en (Seven)
10) Memento
Jordan and Rebecca
Friday, 7 October 2011
Heat
Heat 1995
Dir: Michael Mann
Starring: Robert De Niro & Al Pachino
Setting Starts with a train station using an Establishing shot
Pan and tracking shots
Low angle
high angle
Birds eye and Worms eye view
Setting Hospital
Focus shot
medium shot
Close up of DeNiro's face to show importance of the character to the film
the shots of the camera in the hospital is based on what DeNiro is looking at
the hospital is busy which makes DeNiro look invisible
16 different cuts of DeNiro with in 3 minutes
uneasy music
Melancholy music
Diegetic sounds of people in hospital (no music)
no dialogue only background noise
music comes back on when he exists the hospital
DeNiro discreetly puts gloves on before going in the ambulance.
Dir: Michael Mann
Starring: Robert De Niro & Al Pachino
Setting Starts with a train station using an Establishing shot
Pan and tracking shots
Low angle
high angle
Birds eye and Worms eye view
Setting Hospital
Focus shot
medium shot
Close up of DeNiro's face to show importance of the character to the film
the shots of the camera in the hospital is based on what DeNiro is looking at
the hospital is busy which makes DeNiro look invisible
16 different cuts of DeNiro with in 3 minutes
uneasy music
Melancholy music
Diegetic sounds of people in hospital (no music)
no dialogue only background noise
music comes back on when he exists the hospital
DeNiro discreetly puts gloves on before going in the ambulance.
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