Thriller opening

During our previous lesson we decided that we finally need to start filming for our thriller opening. Our original idea was to go ally pally which is a funfair in Alexandra palace. Unfortunately, we found out that the funfair will not always be there for us to film so we decided to film in a location that we knew would always be there for us. We also decided that ally pally was too far of a location for us to film just in case we forgot anything at college we would have to go all the way back which would just be a waste of time.

The night before I had been thinking of some ideas for our location. On my way to school with Karel, we saw an alley which was quite near to the college and we decided that we should ask the rest of of our group if they would like to film there. They thought that the location was perfect.
Below are some images of the location:









I also thought of some ideas to add to the thriller. The original ideas a schizophrenic waking up at a funfair and finding someone dead. They then called someone and it turned out to that the dead person was the person they were calling. I thought that there was too much and because we were no longer able to film in the funfair I thought that the idea needed some mending. I thought that we should keep the idea of someone waking up in the middle of a street and to find a friend dead nearby. However I came up with the idea that it should be a flashback rather than the person being schizophrenic. So a young lady wakes up to find herself in the middle of a street. She begins to pass many places and as she passes them she begins to have flash backs of the night before. She comes across her friend who has been killed and then we zoom into her face and it ends there.

We wanted the audience to have mixed responses. Some may have connotations that the girl who just woke up has killed her friend whilst others may think otherwise. This is good because it will make the audience want to watch more which is the point of an opening.  We don't want to start the film with the audience knowing everything about the film, there would be no point in watching the rest of the film then.

My group and I decided to use a lot of non-diegetic sound. We were also going to record some sounds of cars passing to give some effect . We decided that we should make the soundtrack before we made the thriller. This is because the soundtrack may not blend with what is happening in the film if we made it first. As for example there may be a bit in the soundtrack which is trying to scare the audience whilst the film is showing someone just walking past. It would not make sense. We have to know when thrilling bits are going to happen in order to make the soundtrack.

We also made a decision that the credits would be a black background with white text. The program we are using to make the credits is LiveType. I managed to find time to experiment with the program. I came across some fonts that I thought would be useful for the opening of our thriller.

Once we arrived in class decided to do a storyboard. The storyboard helped us to get a visual idea of exactly what our thriller will look like. We did an outline of the opening, describing shots, lighting and length of each shot. We also said where the credits were going to be placed within our opening.

Pitching the movie

A pitch is when someone tries to sell their idea to someone in order to receive funding or equipment in order to continue with their filming.

We had to come up with a pitch in order to convince our teachers to lend us the equipment we required to for our opening.

This is a bad example of a pitch. The people who are pitching the movie are not being serious and are not providing the man with enough detail about the movie. Also the man who is listening wants to know more about the romance of the film but they keep changing topic.

Here is another video of a bad pitch.
The man pitching the movie is not being serious. He is talking too fast and when the directors are asking him questions he does'nt even stop to listen to what they have to say. He does not explain his film in detail. Also he just walks in randomly and obviously has not prepared to pitch hi film.

This video shows a man giving people advice on how to pitch a movie.

The advice he gives is really good, he tells the people that they should make a connection with the director before they start talking about their movie. He says they should speak quite slowly in order for the director to catch what they are saying. They should have eye contact and try to engage the directors.

Practice Filming

Thriller- Story board and photos

In Andrews lesson Me, Tope and Karel completed the story board for our Thriller... in the lesson we decided to change the location from our plot development (pitch) which was Ally Pally - Fun Fair... we changed it because we was not sure if we was able to film there whenever we want to, due to the fact that it depends on the weather.. For example, if its raining it would be closed.


We also took photos to represent our story board... the photos are shown down below...
















We also decided to change bits of the story from the orignal plot that lamar had come up with due to the fact that it was abit complicated. the orginal idea was a schizophrenic person waking up at a Funfair, they would then call someone and the person who is schizophrenic would then find out that s/he is calling the dead person that they found.

However we kept the idea of some waking up and someone dead, but instead of the schizophrenic person and the phone calls, it would consists of flaskback of the night before. She would then find her friend dead and hen we would end a zoom going into her face and then it woudl turn black. Also the location would be in a Ally Way instead of Ally Pally-FunFair.

Thriller Research

In my spare time, I decided to research thrillers.

Seeing that we are making an opening to a thriller I decided to look at some thriller openings in order to get an idea of what characteristics should be in my thriller opening.

With my research, I found that thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action. Within the genre 'Thriller', there are many sub-genres. Some of which are:
Action thriller - which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence. These films usually contain large amounts of guns and explosions.

Crime thriller - These films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman.

Disaster thriller - In which the main conflict is due to some sort of natural or artificial disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes etc. A very popular disaster thriller is titanic.

Supernatural thriller - In which the conflict is between main characters, usually one of which has supernatural powers.

Drama thriller - These films are usually slower paced and the characters true backgrounds are often revealed later during the film.

Storyboard Tutorial/Match cut Excercise

In one of our previous lessons we were told to use a grid to create a shot list for this synopsis "East London. 3pm. A man chain-smokes as he sits at home at his PC. He copies confidential computer files and plans to a CD. He packages them and is seen posting them.

We were told to film the following sequence, making sure to use at least one match cut, an example of shot/reverse shot and showing we had an understanding of the 180 degree rule.
"A character opens a door, walks into a room, sits down opposite another chracter and they share a few lines of dialogue."

Our group decided that we wanted to try and make it thrilling, because it would be good practice for our real thriller.

I came up with the idea that we should use the N1 centre as our location because it is close and we could take some really good shots there. Our storyline was there was someone walking towards the N1 centre. She walks towards the stairs and sees a strange person standing on the top of hte stairs so she then decides to take the escalator. Once she reaches the top of the escalator she turns around to see her friend sitting down. She then walks to the friend, sits down and has a small conversation. The friend then leaves and the main character stands up and looks over the escalator, only to see that the strange poerson is now coming up the escalator. She runs to the cinema but its locked.She then runs to open the lift but once the lift opens the strange man jumps out and drags her into the lift. The lift then closes and it ends there.

karel morris practice thriller 1 thriller

In my last media lesson which was on the 13th january, my group and i created our own thrillling film. our film was about a young girl that got stalked by a man, then he eventually kidnaps her. The location for this was the local shopping centre because it was easily available and it was also relevant to our storyline. we used various numbers of shot types such as long shots, mid shots, close up. we also used hand held camera, zoom and match cut. we used all these techniques so that they would create tension for our film. we also used them so that we could gain practice for when we do our opening for a thriller.

After filming we went into the editing suite to edit our clip. The outcome was great because we had a range of clips to choose from and we also knew what we were doing. Our team work was also great and this gave me confidence for when we will be doing the opening of a thriller. This gave me confidence because it helped me to see that i can rely on my group due to their participation and co-operation with each other.However, due to time we didn't get to add sound effects,music and credit to our clip. Therefore, i have less knowledge and understanding within this field at the moment.

On the 15th january, which was Annabelle's lesson, we began planning our own thrillers. we also looked at A grade work that was marked by the examiner. This helped me to broaden my thinking and helped me to see that alot can be done within 2 mins. it also helped me to see that camera work such as close up is very vital because it creates tension.

During the process of our planning, we each thought of ideas for a thriller. firstly we thought of the location, time of day, and then the plot. Despite doing this we still found it hard to figure out a story line that was simple effective and possible, therefore we decided that we would think of an idea during the weekend.

In todays lesson (20th january), we were still struggling to think of an idea. However, further on in the lesson we finally thought of an idea. we developed lamar's idea which is about a man that recites methods as he gets closer to the object. he has a split personality and does questionable things due to his illness. we used Lamar's idea and linked it to kai's location which is that of a fun fair. we did this because they had a connection and it would create more tension and it would be more thrilling. we also made a pitch and a storyboard. we did this so that we have a guideline of what to do when creating our thriller.

karel morris (examples of thriller)

EXAMPLE OF THRILLERS:

• THE THIRD MAN







• THE USUAL SUSPECTS







• PSYCHO







• PROM NIGHT







• EAGLE EYE







• LOVE LIES BLEEDING







• DECEPTION

Making a thriller

During our last Media lesson my class looked at a documentary by BBC TV which was presented by Thomas Sutcliffe.

Whilst we were watching the documentary we were told to answer questions. One of the questions said to explain what Thomas Sutcliffe meant when he said "Films need to seduce their audience into long term commitment. While there are many types of seduction, the temptation to go for instant arousal is also irresistible." This means that the audience must be drawn into the film and they must want to watch it throughout. He is also saying that the temptation to start with the best bits is almost irresistible. However,according to director Jean Jacques Beineix there are risks of instant arousal. Some of which are:
- You begin to wonder what you can do next
- You have to live up to the audiences expectation.

Also from the documentary i learnt that a good opening must not give the audience to much so that they will want to watch more, but it should not give the audience too little so they have a slight idea and understanding of the storyline.

We also looked at what Stanley Kauffmann describe to be the classic opening. According to him the classic opening begins with the establishing shot/long shot (of a building), then a low angle shot which begins to tilt up. You then see the receptionist and then the private office.

We were also able to look at the opening sequence of seven which was created by Kyle Cooper. The opening sequence is so effective because it draws you in straight away. It foreshadowed what was going to happen in the film. The cut away scenes are also very effective and the way the credits fluttered around before they were able to be seen created a thrilling sense.

In addition, we were asked what is meant by the term " a favourite trick of film Noir". This is when the beginning of the film is actually the ending and the rest of the film explains it.

We were also shown he opening of the Shining again. The opening creates suspense because it is as if the camera is following the car like a predator.

We also looked at some of the thrillers that the previous year had made. We were told the grade of each thriller which helped because it gave us some sort of idea of what we are suppose to make. One of the thrillers i found really good that the previous year made was blacklisted.

I thought that the students idea was well thought and made a lot of sense. It was very simple because it did not have too much and stayed in the category of a thriller. The film basically had a girl who was on her way home from shopping and it then showed her unloading her shopping. We were then shown a man in a car who looked suspicious. Once the woman finished loading her shopping her door bell rang and when she went to answer it, there was nobody there. Then as she closed the door the man who was in the car appeared behind her and the film ended there. I thought this was a very good thriller because we (the audience) were so calm whilst she was loading the shopping , then we were worried by the door bell ringing but we went back to calm once we found out nobody was there and then we were thrilled at seeing the man appear behind her. I thought that the way they built up to the climax was very smart.

Another film we were shown made by previous students was missing. We were shown someone running in the woods. She looked as though she was lost or she had been kidnapped, I was unsure of which one. Then we were constantly shown a face which looked rather scary. I was unsure if the face belonged to the person who was missing or a monster.

I did however think that the location they used was very good. They used the woods which looked very foggy and mysterious, however it would have gone to better use if they were making a horror. I personally disliked the film and thought that the concept was very bland and went on far too long. I also thought it went more to the genre of a horror rather than a thriller. It didn't thrill me at all because I was constantly shown a face which was meant to be scary. It didn't build up to anything either, and I think a thriller should be up to something that will scare the audience.

Another film I thought that was very good was the untold. This thriller achieved the highest grade. I thought it was good because they kept the storyline nice and simple. It wasn't too over the top and we were provided with just enough information. The camera shots were also very good. They had some match cuts in there also we were very precise.

One of the films I enjoyed the most was the final hour. However, I would not classify the film as a thriller because nothing thrilled me. I would classify it as Action Sci-Fi, that is what it connotes to me. I also had connotations that the main character was a spy which isn't usually a big character in thrillers. I was however very interested in the storyline and once it had finished I wanted to know more and what had led to the ending. I would classify that as action rather than thriller. But I thought their camera shots were very good.

The shining

In my last media lesson we watched a thriller called the Shining.

The thriller is about a man who gets a job in a big hotel and he, his wife and son move there. Before he moves there he is told a story of a man that use to live there. The man who lived there previously killed his wife and twin daughters. Once they move, strange things begin to happen. The mans son begins to see strange things like the twin daughters of the previous man and a corridor being filled with blood. He also begins to continuously see the words red rum. The father starts turning mad and tries to kill the wife and son.

One scene that I found thrilling was when the son was in the maze. The steady camera was used in the maze. This made it easy for us to follow the boy whilst he was running in the maze. I found this scene thrilling because you did not know what was coming next, and it felt as if we were with the boy because the steady cam made it as if we were running with him.

Another scene I found thrilling was when the son was riding around the hotel and he came across the room which he was not suppose to enter and the door was open.

I thought the cut away scenes of the twins and the corridor filled with blood were also quite thrilling. I thought these were thrilling because you never expected it. It was very random and would pop up out of the blue. the cut away scenes also gave hints to the audience about the storyline.

Also the diegetic sound of the tricycle on the floor and carpet added some sort of tension because the audience didn't know what was coming next. Also the sound was very loud which was thrilling because if anything were to happen the audience would being shock.

karel morris (thriller)

Card Game Practical

In one of my previous lesson we were put into groups of 4 and we had to produce a tense and engaging opening of a card game. we had various shot types such as close up, long shot, over the shoulder shots, tracking and panning. we decided to use such shot types because they create tension and they also create an intense mood. After recording, we edited the shots in the edit suite and we was also able to add sound. This practical work prepared me for my thriller preparation because it helped me to organise myself together and it also helped to get a more advance idea of using the cameras,it also helped me to become more familiar with the settings on the computer in the editing suite. However, before we did all of this we had a camcorder tutorial which was ver brief. Itwas given by the media technician micky. During this tutorial we were taught how to use the video reorder and we were taught the things to avoid doin. for example we were taught to avoide zoom if neccessary because if we forget to focus the camer before we zoom then the shot will be very blury.

In another media lesson we watched a thriller film called The Shining. The shining is about a hotel that's built in a grave yard and is possessed by evil spirit. then a family goes to the hotel o stay and the husband becomes possessed and he tries to kill his family. We also looked at what a thriller is and why a thriller differs to a horror.

What is a thriller?

A thriller is a film that provides one goal- to thrill the audience and to keep them in suspense. it also leave the audience cliff hanging at the edge of their seats as the plot gradually builds towards a climax. plots of thriller involves characters that come into conflict with eachother or with outside forces. we see an an example of this in the film called "The Shining". Thrillers and Horrors are similar in the sense that they both thrill the audienece. however they differ because thrillers films revolve around things that are likely to happen in everday life, whereas horror films are more supernatural and doesn't reflect real life situations.

Whilst doing research on thrillers, i found out that Characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitious individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-friends, and more. The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. "http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html">http://www.filmsite.org/thrillerfilms.html.In my last media lesson we watched thrillers that were produced by the previous year group. some of their work were very good because it made me want to watch more whereas others weren't so good because i didn't clearly understand the opening and it wasn't engaging. Watching these examples of thriller openings was very helpful for me because it gave me ideas of what i could do for my thriller. It also helped me to realise the qaulity of works that are worth A grades. in addition to all these factors, watching the thriller films helped me to know in advance the things that i should avoide doing and the things that are worth doing.

In Anabelle's lesson we looked at what matched cut is and how it is used. matched cut is when two different shots are used and then joined together to show a continuity from something, instead of showing the whole process. An example of this is that a camera person will show a shot of a man opening his door, then another shot will show the man in his car starting his car; instead of showing the man opening his car door then getting in his car, putting on his seatbelt belt and starting the car.

In this lesson we also looked at a film produced by the media department which showed matched cut. It also showed titles and headings that reflected a situation. Before watching this film and getting a clear understanding of what a matched cut is we had to come up with our own matched cut of a man "transferring a file from his computer, smoking and then posting the file. After completeting this task we had to plan our own thrill opening that included matched cut.