Thriller Opening (Research): Testing out Camera Angles

Over the course of the holidays, I decided to test out different camera angles, recording small scenes and stringing them together. This is something to help us think through what sort of camera angles we would want within our movie opening and how much time we should spend on each. We also used camera angles that we've mentioned that we want to use within our opening sequence.

Thriller Opening (Planning): One Page Pitch

We did a one-page pitch to pitch our ideas of our movie towards a producer of some kind to look at.

Working title: Systems Down

Film Genre: Psychological Thriller

Length: 110 minutes

Target Audience: 15- 24 year olds

Why?: This is because of the genre of the film and content that’s within the film itself, the suspense and fantasy type of feel to it from the ghosts, an audience younger than 15 may think of it as something real, as though ghosts do genuinely exist. We believe that the audience will be all genders but it may appeal more to the males who typically like ghost and thriller movies more, stereotypically anyway. This is meant for an audience who’s not so much as a serious film goer but watches it for just entertainment and for those who enjoy movies like paranormal activity for example, just films that would keep the audience on edge.

Tag-line: Murder doesn’t stop when you’re dead.

What if premise: What if the psychotic thoughts of a woman drove her to destruction yet still lingered, even in the afterlife? What if the woman who sees ghosts, turns out to be the ghost?

Plot Synopsis: The protagonist is a beginner ghost hunter who has encountered an advertisement, asking for help about something ‘spooky’ occurring within the house. Taking up the job of investigating, he goes to the house to only come across the owner of the house and talk to her about the issues occurring, after hearing the information on the happenings within the facility.

He then installs cameras about several rooms that the owner reported the strange happenings occurred in, the cameras are known to pick up ghosts. He then travels back to the kitchen where he’d set up his ‘base’ before looking through the cameras at midnight, when the occurrences were rumoured to start, he then noticed the ghosts stood before the camera. Staring in awe, he then checked other cameras through the system and spotted them in different locations.

These ghosts seemed docile at first before gradually growing quite fierce and restless as they slowly noticed the man’s existence within the kitchen and slowly approached the kitchen as he could see through the cameras where they were and how fast they approached him.

One by one, the cameras start to go down, showing only static as he falls into fear and panic. Looking up though, slowly from the screen, he spots the three ghosts before him as they just seem to stare at him. Before they decide to take his life though, he catches a glimpse of their past and what had happened to them.

Statement of Intent: This was inspired by the game Five Nights at Freddy’s but has obviously taken a slight turn as we altered accordingly to not be seen as plagiarism. We wanted to tell this story because of it being chilling and it takes a twist of things, as some plot twists occur within it. The audience in the younger range of our audience may take a thrill of all the events that occur so we are hoping they will enjoy it. It’s a film over a TV drama because of it being cut so short as the main protagonist is *spoilers* ‘killed off’ by the ghosts with grudges, hence why it’s a film, also, it’d be difficult to figure out how to continue it.

Visual Realisation: We have realised that a similar thing has been done but with Paranormal Activity though ours isn’t a mockumentary style, instead it’s simply more like a point of view film. The Babadook is how we wish to portray our film as its recent and uses effects that we’ll be able to find now but in particular, how things are shot is good as well. The dialogue is limited to only a little as this is found during the opening sequence mainly with the woman explaining the events that have been occurring before the ghost hunter arrived on the scene.

Audience Appeal: We understand that our target audience may go for things that are visually scary and enjoy watching things to do with the paranormal, believing in the possibility of them existing, so we decided to add in some plot twists as well which would keep the audience on edge as that is what is assumed that the audience will enjoy, an example of the plot twist is that the woman who currently owns this house is actually a ghost.

We decided on some young actors as well, such as Emma Watson as an example as she’s a young actress who appeals to our young male audience that we’re hoping to gain, as well as popular actors such as Josh Hutcherson from the Hunger Games to appeal to a female audience and hopefully attract their attention.

Thriller Opening (Planning): The Original Drafting and Planning Process

This was the original ideas sheet we used to figure out what we were going to do for our thriller opening, let alone how we'd do it as we thought about certain things to do and went through a couple of ideas as well, for example, mannequins that would go about a house that was seen as an attraction.

 

Thriller Opening (Planning): Storyboard

Here is the storyboard for our thriller movie opening, we've decided to stick with this as it's a basic guideline so we have a rough idea of what to do during the filming process. It may be edited though as time goes on through the filming process so this may need to be updated later on.

Thriller Opening/Theory (Research): Representation of Disability Within Media

In media, we were looking at disabled people and how they are represented by the media once more, looking at different articles for research on how they are represented and reasons as to why this may be occurring. I looked at this as well because it may also help me with thinking of ways to represent disability within my thriller opening if I decide to do so and how to represent them as such as well as how the audience may see our thriller opening.

From what I have read in the "Unlimited" source, they are aiming to assist people who are disabled, whether they want to go into acting or into filming, to achieve their goals and be more noticed as they state that the "first disabled character portrayed by a disabled actor on British television did not appear until 1992" which means that before then, disabled characters were played by those who weren't disabled to start off with and this could be seen as showing them differently to how they actually are. A source of misrepresentation.

The second article, "Women, Old and Disabled and Still Under Represented", tells us of how even gender and age is an issue as well as disability when it comes to them being represented in a series. In this study of "small screen diversity" showed that men and the younger generation along with the healthy are presented more within series over women, the elderly and the disabled.

Reading more into the article, it appears that even sexuality is under represented as well; "Lesbian, gay or bisexual people compromised 1% of the overall TV population" stated the study. Another thing is ethnicity is being under represented as well according to the study in this article, making it seem that young men or men in general are seen more or often and are, in most cases, white.

The lack of representation of disabled people though is second to none as just below that is indeed the sexualities as disabled people seem to be represented at least a little bit more, if not, inaccurately.
In a third article that's about Ricky Gervais' character "Derek" and disability portrayed in it, tells me about the fact that Ricky believes that Derek's actor was disabled or not in actuality would make no difference to the character at all, hence why Derek's actor is not disabled.

Even the character itself was assumed to be autistic before the show was written despite Ricky saying that there had been no hints towards disability within this character of his. This can tell us that the assumptions of people who view the series have different ideas of what disability is represented as.

For example, Derek was rumoured by many to be autistic and then everyone started to think he was yet Ricky did not intend to portray him in such a way. Instead, he wanted to create a character that was different and the fact that people put a label on him of being disabled because of how he acts and speaks, dresses, behaves, it tells us that disabled people have been labelled as someone like Derek, someone who's different and odd, out of place.

Looking into some articles of my own, I found out of a piece that was called "The representation and portrayal of people with disabilities on analogue terrestrial television", within it stated that people with disabilities that are noticed most within TV dramas are ones that are easily recognisable., for example; "mobility, sensory impairment and disfigurement/physical impairment."

This can show us that it's difficult to show someone with a mental disability, or even if the media class it as a disability. Another thing that's stated is that the representation of disabled people within TV dramas has dropped since 2004 and their belief for it is "stereotyping" which leads us back to Paul Hunt's 10 identified stereotypes within media for disabled people.

Thriller Opening (Research): Audience Theory

During media, we looked into theories on audiences and why certain audiences react like they do to certain genres of film, these are examples and theories of why audiences will react in such a way that they do.

Hypodermic Syringe
There is a theory known as the hypodermic syringe model which is where it is believed that media is like a syringe and will 'inject' ideas, attitudes and beliefs into the minds of the audience who are seen as powerless and have little choice but to be influenced by such a thing - for example, if you were to watch something violent, like a murder movie, it is suspected that this will lead to that person going out and murdering someone. This theory is most popular with violent movies though as people believe that anything that's seen as violent can easily be repeated by a member of their audience. This goes to show though, that it may not effect everyone in the same way, showing that this theory isn't concrete. This theory was created in the 1930s by a group of German Marxists.


Identification and Sensitisation
The idea of identification is that violence that is portrayed within media can relieve the tension and/or desires of the audience through identification with fictional characters or events. This helps lessen with how many murderers there are in the world as they would identify themselves with a certain character for example and could imagine themselves doing such things that a certain character would do and that would sometimes take their mind off of it.
Looking on the flipside, sensitisation is where the violence can be so shocking to some where it puts them off it altogether and can also make them more aware of the consequences. It's also argued that sensitisation could make people more aware and more likely to report cases or incidents of crimes.

Thriller Opening (Planning): Thought Process 1

Thriller Opening (Research): Practice Lighting Shots

I decided to practice different lighting shots to create different moods that I could use within the thriller opening that me and Milie will be making. I really like the 1st and 3rd picture with the lighting shining up on the face and the lighting shining down. The light shining up gives a thrilling sense for the audience in my opinion and is quite the cliche lightning style. The light shining down shot gives a little bit of chills.

Thriller Opening (Research): Textual Analysis - Se7en

We have decided to look at the thriller movie 'Se7en' in order to gain ideas on what to do in our thriller opening which we will be making later on in the year and are currently planning.

This thriller film stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, two famous actors and it follows them as they try to solves the mystery behind these murders that are occurring, relating back to the seven deadly sins.

In my opinion, after watching the entire movie after being shown the clip, I enjoyed it a lot and did indeed find this to be quite a good movie and was willing to sit through the whole thing. A lot of things that happened in the clip we were shown made me want to watch the full movie and hence, I did so.

Thriller Opening/Theory (Research): A Touch of Frost ~ Camera Shots

This post is about disability represented within "A Touch of Frost" and how it's represented through different camera shots. This could give us ideas on how to show disability in our thriller opening if we decide to do so, giving us ideas as well for shots we could use anyway.

In a clip I’ve watched from the series, A Touch of Frost, where I’m focusing on the character Billy and how disability can be represented in TV dramas, which seems odd yet they are portrayed in different ways for definite. I’ll be mostly looking at the camera angles used though within the clip I’ve seen in order to show how he is presented.  There seems to be a shot of Billy at the start, being tracked using a long shot which allows the audience to follow his trail as he dusts himself off during this scene. This could hint at something suspicious has happened. A couple of minutes later, there is then a close up of Billy’s face, showing a sense of fear upon it as though he is a deer caught in the headlights of a car, like he is a victim.

It is noticed that when the father and inspector enter the room Billy is in and they’re sat down, there is a two person shot of the father and Billy in the same scene, this can almost show that Billy needs someone with him as when it shows the inspector, he doesn’t have anyone else in his shot, almost showing that he doesn’t need anyone or any support. Yet looking back at Billy and his father, it almost appears like his father is babying him by being in this shot with him. A little later on, it shots Billy in a low angle shot, showing him as almost inferior to the inspector and being judged in a way, but it almost shows him as being vulnerable once more and can also hint at him having down syndrome.

Thriller Opening (Research): Conventions of a Thriller Film

In a thriller film, the producers do many different things to make sure that the audience knows that the film is indeed a thriller film. For example, they will dim lighting, making it quite low key, many quick cuts between scenes will make it so that the tension would rise as it would be quite snappy at showing things. Shadows give off a sense of darkness and can sometimes give the audience a sense of thrill, alongside music that slowly builds up, creating a sense of tension. Many conventions for thriller movies do raise the tension as it’s practically their job. There would be dramatic changes in the angle of shots, showing power at points for certain characters, them trying to think or doing a certain action which would set the scene and mood. Diegetic sounds of breathing can easily make a person tense up and is quite good for a dramatic effect and to make the audience sit at the edge of their seat.

Black and white shots alongside a mixture of montage shots show us of time passing by and can make things seem more dramatic, even a falling glass can be seen as a movement that would definitely be a part of a thriller film. There is also a lot of fast paced editing within certain scenes which can bring out the excitement of an audience or anxiety, or even make them a bit nervous though it depends on the scenes that are finishing.

Though the most cliché thing to happen in thriller movies is the scenes where protagonists are at the mercy at the antagonists, this can give the audience a sense of thrill as though hope is lost but obviously, the protagonist will triumph in the end, whether it means risking their life or sacrificing it, it shall be done in order to defeat the villain. A typical example of this would be Jaws, a thriller film of a man-eating shark but in the end, they do, of course, beat the shark, a thriller film which I have recently watched.

Depending on the genre type may vary on what is to be involved in a thriller movie as there are many different sub-genres in the world of thrillers which gives us a variation in movies and can make it so that we don’t know what to expect next.

According to a site known as MindMeister, there is five areas for conventions and codes within thriller films which are the feelings thrillers create within their target audience, thriller narratives, iconography, characters and of course, themes. These are important in the eyes of the people that post on this site as there are many types that fall under each category. For example, under ‘Feelings thrillers create’, they believe that thrillers should cause the audience to feel excitement, suspense, anticipation, anxiety, uncertainty and should be, of course, nerve wracking for the audience to watch at points where there is high tension.

 

Preliminary Task: Evaluation

In a small group of three; me, Lizzie Stafford and Millie Holmes, worked together to create a small video that was about two minutes long at max, we named it, La Penna Rosa Rojo, we had a change in the name sue to us not being able to find a pen that was actually pink like we had hoped to use within our video. Instead, we used a red pencil (even though it can't be seen so easily in the black and white video, so much time spent for nothing on trying to find the right coloured pencil part) but we still enjoyed spending time on this task. Lizzie did well with the filming as she took pretty much care of all the filming whilst me and Millie prepared rooms, well tried to, and also found out equipment that needed carrying, as well as acting in the video. Below is a link to the video as each of us had a specific job to do on this video and I think we worked well together.

We were then told to afterwards, create an evaluation of our finished work, analysing where we went wrong, what went well, how much time we spent, etc. In my opinion, I enjoyed it all.

 

Preliminary Task: Post Production in Utopia

The series Utopia is a sci-fi series which is one for thriller lovers, as they say in reviews, and includes hyper-real violence. They use quite bright colours in this series as I have noticed that it also has a comic book feel to it, mostly based around the fact that the series is based on a comic book which tells of a global conspiracy which turns out to be true.
They edited in the colours after shooting as they shoot the scenes in Britain and the blue skies in the scenes are seen, it would be obvious that they have edited in the blues skies, after all, Britain isn't really the place where blue skies are always present.
They use green screens a lot  which allows them to add on a background and make out the characters are in a complete different place to where they actually are, fooling the audience.

Preliminary Task: Storyboard



This here is a storyboard, created by Lizzie Stafford, a member of our small group, as the title at the time was 'La Penna Rosa'. I'm unsure if we changed it at any point as we switched to using a red pencil instead of the desired pink pen that we wanted for the video... yes... it's serious. Anyway, below is the storyboard we followed, most of the way, for the video. 

 

 

Preliminary Task/Theory: TV Drama Case Study

 

In our own time, we were told to produce a presentation that told us in depth about the series we decided to look at. In this case, I decided to look at the medical American TV drama called House as I enjoyed the series thoroughly. Below is the case study I had produced on the series:

When using slideshare though, the animations and gifs appear to not work along with some of the text being blurred which isn't intended and it wasn't in the original slideshow, but it is for some reason on this site.

Preliminary Task: Explanation of Task and Different Camera Shots

As our starting task, we are recording a small piece of a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she (in our case) then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task will demonstrate match on action shot, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
Below are the definitions of the three terms which I will end up looking back on to help with revision.

Match on Action Shot
The match on action shot will emphasise certain events within our clip which will make it stand out more. Match on action (or cutting on action) is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This is not a graphic match or match cut, it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things.

Shot/Reverse Shot
Shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example.

The 180 Degree Rule
The 180° rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180° angle in which this is maintained in a conversation, for example. This allows the audience to have a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may be off-screen in some shots, for example in shot reverse shots.

Preliminary Task: Practice shots with a Nikon DSLR D3000

We decided to test out a Nikon DSLR D3000 camera and practiced different shots, giving us a good idea on what we wanted to use later on.

 Mid-Shot

 

 

Establishing Shot

Extreme Close Up 

 

 

 Long Shot using Leading Line

 Close Up

 Establishing Shot

 

 Low Angled Shot

 Three Different Viewpoints from Different Angles

 Mid Shot 

 

 

 Long Shot

 A Long Shot using Background

Photos of Millie and Me
Photos taken by Lizzie

Welcome to the Blog!

Welcome to the Blog!

I've never studied media studies before, and that's a fact... Not even made as blog before either. So this is all a first for me! I've been interested for a long while as to how a film is made along with TV dramas, from the special effects to the different camera shots. I'm a bit of a keen watcher when it comes to films and never knew, at this point, how everything was made and so, I took up this course.

A particular area in all of this which I'm interested in is the editing since I've wanted to know for quite a while. I also decided to take up the course in order to learn how to use the recording equipment properly and I'm very much looking forward to all of it.

The task that I've been given is to make a 2 and a half minute opening to a film. I'm looking forward to working with others when it comes to this! And I have a couple of ideas already.

Hopefully you'll enjoy the final film and well, the big finale at the end of this journey and work!