My Thriller Idea

We began the process of presenting our ideas to the rest of the group for our Thriller film coursework. I tried to make my Thriller as simple and effective as possible knowing the limited amount of time we would have to shoot it and prepare for it.
In terms of locations i had two ideas in mind; a dark, forest edged road, and a girl's bedroom. I only wanted 3actors, two of which could be taken from our school and the props were minimal- 2 phones, a book/magazine and a bed.
My film idea was aimed at an audience between the ages of 12 and 18 because i thought it was an idea that younger people could relate more to and would find more frightening. (the idea of being alone is perhaps more appealing than frightening to some adults!)
I hadn't thought as far as to create a name for it but i was toying with the idea of something to do with ''The Unknown''...
I was thinking it could be created by an independent film company making short horror clips for something like Chanel 4, perhaps in a series of some sorts. Here is the power point i made to present my idea to the class:
Bella’s Thriller Movie Idea
:)

-A girl, aged 16 to 18 (someone from Hurtwood is fine) she is sitting alone somewhere, reading a book maybe.
•Her mobile phone rings, she picks it up, it is her best friend.
•Jolly, care-free music begins, with or without lyrics, and the screen splits in to two to show both girls having the conversation.
•The 2nd girl is walking down a dark road sheltered by trees, it is night time.
•The scene continues as normal, until the audience becomes the voyeuristic party when a sinister shadow is seen following the 2nd girl.

•Both girls are completely unaware of this of course, they are still having a happy conversation.
•The music, however, changes very slightly to incorporate the sinister atmosphere, a darker layer under the light tune.
•The shadow is gaining on the 2nd girl and the tension in the music builds drastically with almost all of the jolly music faded out now.
•The screen is still split in two allowing the audience to view both girls as they talk to each other.

•All of a sudden the 2nd screen goes fuzzy, with nothing but that grey static to be seen and heard.
•The music has stopped right at the dramatic crescendo all that can be heard, as the camera zooms in on the phone is that long with held beep, like the sound of a heart machine when the person has died.
•The first girl is in shock, as the sound of heavy, raspy breathing is heard from the phone.
•Scene cuts and black back drop for title to swim on to.
• END.
Dun dun dun duuuuuuun!

I also drew a rough storyboard of six frames to show my idea of how to split the screen in half and i think that was a good idea because it also showed the class my exact ideas for what i intended to create. However i was unable to scan it and put it up here.

In the end my idea wasn't chosen but i enjoyed trying to come up with new ideas for my thriller film anyway.

Thriller posters vs. Horror posters

Here are two different Thriller posters, again one looks more psychological, as though it would delve into the mind and make the audience think and be excited.

Whereas the other thriller poster looks more action/thriller like and more paranormal and ghost-like.

Horror Posters vs. Thriller posters

These are two different versions of Horror posters, different from eachother in that one of them looks as though it will bring lots of blood and gore to the plate and the other looks slightly more Thriller like and more psychological.

What is a Thriller? What is a Horror?

The word 'thrill' actually means 'to pierce'. Our teacher gave us the analogy of a piece of skin that has been pulled tight like a drum being used as an audience member's personal protection bubble, and the thriller is like a hot needle piercing slowly into the skin through out the film. This is what we are aiming to do when shooting our own opening sequences of thrillers.
A good thriller will have; voyeurism- the aspect of watching someone who does not know you are watching them. The voyeur can either be the audience itself or an actor in the fuilm, for example Michael Myers in the thriller 'Halloween' is the voyeur throughout the film.
A good thriller will also have the enigma aspect, the mystery, the unknown that keeps the audience's attention and is usually only explained at the very end of the film. This can also lead on to the tension factor, a good thriller needs to build tension, this can be created using either of the aspects above or through the plot itself, either way, a thriller needs some tension to be concidered a thriller!
There are many different types of thrillers; it is quite a loose genre in terms of it being able to cover all these different genres.
There are psychological thrillers, films like 'Pyscho' that penetrate the mind and i personally find these the most frightening because of the fact that they tend to linger in the mind for longer.
Then there are the action thriller's like 'James Bond' that use action as the tension builder, but here we see how this can be tied in with espionage thrillers, because as we know, James Bond is a spy and this is another type of thriller.
There are also 'Slasher' thrillers, the real blood-and-gore type films that make the audience queezy, films such as 'Friday the 13th' filled with tension leading up to a bloody kill.
These are all thrillers which shows just how versitile a genre it is, wheather we like them or not.
Horror's on the other hand are films that try to elicit the emotions of fear and absolute horror from their viewers. The main general plots tend to involve the themes of mental illness, death and the super-natural and often have a cantral villain.
There is often a thin line between horror films and comedy horror films with examples such as the 'Scary Movie' trilogy which plays on other horror films and pulls out the comedy in them.
Horror's have changed from being mainly based on classic literature and gothic/horror genre's in the earlier times such as 'Dracular' and 'Frankenstein' as opposed to being more based on post-world war 2 horrors such as 'Invasion of the Body snatchers' and 'The Exorcist'.
The main difference between a Thriller and a Horror is that Thriller's are there to entertain and excite the audience whereas a Horror is trying to frighten and terrify the audience. :)

Introduction to Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is a very useful software that enables a sequence to be coherently cut together to construct a narrative or a montage.

We were innitially introduced to Final Cut Server which is basically an electronic filling cabinat that allows us to store projects, gives easy access to our work and prevents any loss of work.

We went thorough the short sequences we filmed in our preliminary task and checked the parts we wanted ''in'' and then ''out'' and then saved them to our logging bin on the desk top of the machine our group was using.

Final Cut Pro is the actual editing software that allows us to construct a time line of shots and sound in order to build a narrative or montage. We began by creating a logging bin within the desktop that we were able to drop the bits of our sequal that we liked in to, thus later on being able to view them on the timeline, after of course having cut and stuck the pieces together in chronological order to generate continuity and to conceal the illusion that the material is not spontaneous.

Prelim Task

Prelim Task Evaluation

My group worked in the Old Edit Suite above the studio, this worked well as a shooting area because the space wasn't too large or too small and there was a door that was neccessary for the scene we were shooting.
There were only three people in our group and we took it in turns filming. I set up the camera whilst my two team mates set up the tri-pod we all helped to bubble the camera and then we took it in turns to play director, camera man and brianstormer of ideas. We each filmed a shot and we each gave one of our own shot ideas.
It was a two lighting set-up, one for each character in the scene, and it was soft and light. This created a romantic atmosphere because of the softness of it, also the shadows made the whole scene seem more interesting.
In terms of the actual filming, we made sure we had the camera bubbled before each shot and we kept the camera level with actor it was shooting which sometimes meant we had to change the angle and level because our male actor is quite tall. However, we made sure we stayed in focus and the shot stayed in frame.
We made sure that at all times the lighting equipment was out of the way, and we chose appropriate angles for the shots such as a close up of the male lead's mouth saying ''Do it!'' this made him seem domineering and in control and so was apropriate.
We were careful to shoot the whole sequence through with each shot, for example, we shot the whole thing with a wide shot about twice, we then moved on to a head and shoulders shot of the whole sequence and after theat we went on to the cjlose ups. However, we did forget to do a mid shot sequence of the whole thing...
The 180 degree rule was not really thought about to be honest because we had a wall behind the actors anyway so we didnt need to worry about it.
Appropriate terminology was used throughout and we made sure we shot the 30 seconds of colour bar before hand and shouted action and cut at the right times.
I enjoyed this preliminary task because it showed me what it is really like to work on a set and to call the shots, literally. :)

How to Create a Blogging Account

The last practical session we had, we learnt how to create our own blogging account.
We logged on, found our names in the school media blogging network, created an account, customised it to our liking with the best themes Blogger could provide and then proceeded to write our first post; My introduction.
After that we learnt how to upload photos and posters that we had created on to our accounts and how to write about each of them as well.
Basically that was it, and since then i have been updating my blog with the practical sessions that we have been doing and checking to see if i have any comments on any of my work.
I find the blog to be a good way of communicating my work to my teacher and being able to compare what im doing with what others in my class are doing. It is a useful engine in my opinion. :)

In the studio

In the studio we learnt how to create a fimable atmosphere using just a basic set and some lights.
There was only one camera and two camera people, three lights and two lighting people and then of course the actors who in this case were being interviewers.
The camera was on a tripod and one of the tasks we had to grasp was how to bubble the camera so that it had the right light exposier and the right amount of focus.
As i said the set was basic with just two chairs, but we managed to create a closeness between each character using the lights and positioning the chairs in a cirtain way that meant there had to be contact between the two people.
We learnt about head space and how not to let there be any! We learnt that close ups can be effetive when the interviewee is answering a question, and we learnt that lighting can play a diffinitive role in the creating of a believable atmosphere.
The lesson was only an hour long and therefore we could not learn as much as we wanted but it was still an intriguing lesson.

Photoshop Practical Session

In our second practical lesson, we were taught how to use a basic photoshop programme on some pictures.

We were shown the lasso tool, which wraps around the contours of a head or a foot or anything really, then the magnetic lasso tool which does the same thing but which uses colour definition to know where to wrap around, and then there was the polygonal lasso tool which works in straight lines with different points of focus each time its clicked on.

Then we met the burn tool, the dodge tool and the sponge tool each of which do ingnious things, for example, the burn tool makes the place darker, the dodge tool makes it lighter and the sponge tool saturates all the colour so that a face could end up looking grey and sick.

We were then introduced to the Clone Stamp tool which will clone whatever it is clicked on first.

And then last but not least, we saw the Liquifier!

This was by far the most comical of the tools because being able to make your friend look like Liza Minellie is good fun!

Photo shop is very useful and can be a lot of fun, i think. :)

Our first media session was an interviewing session with the class, where two of us (Millie and myself) were on the camera filming the scene, then one of us was on lights and two more were playing the interviewers whilst the rest of the class came in acting as the interviewees.

The class was interesting for me because i had the advantage of working with the camera (a PE170) so i learnt a lot about the workings of the camera before some of the rest of the class did.

We were filming in the TV studio with three lights, one camera and two main actors. We learnt how to set up a camera on a tri-pod and how to bubble it so that the picture was not squew or squiff, this was frustrating at first but once we got the hang of it we were fine. :)

The whole process was interesting, i really enjoyed it and it was a good first lesson because it made us all curious to learn more aboout media and filming.