Risk Assessment

Here is the long awaited risk assesment form, sorry it took such a long time to put up!

We looked at all the possible risks involved in our thriller opening and found that there wasn't really alot of risk involved in our opening as we tried to steer clear of anything involving a great amount of violence.

Anyway, here's the risk assesment!

Opening Sequence Evaluation

In what way does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When given the task of making a thriller movie opening, we wanted to portray the idea of a real thriller opening as much as possible, so do to this we watched various examples of thriller openings so we could create a believable thriller opening. When watching this, we saw the film Marnie, in which the identity of the main character we appear to be following is kept a secret. We decided that we should use this idea for the stalker so it would create tension and mystery in the product. We then decided that we would develop this idea so that not only do we never see his face, or much of his body really, but we would have him following the other character, using point of view and over the shoulder shots. So the presence of the stalkers character is in almost every shot.

We wanted to make the house that the stalker follows the girl to look as warm and welcoming as possible so it would connote something desirable and show contrast with the grey bleak exterior that we see her walk through to get to the comfort of home. We thought this would be a good way of making the idea of home look violated as the stalker (being part of the bleak exterior) enters the house mixing the bleak and the homely.



What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our media product is targeted at a large audience, so it would be distributed in cinemas first so it's readily available for people to see it. It would then be distributed on DVD so it's available to see at home. For this to happen we thought it should be released on a popular label that may be well known for it's thriller films, or just generally well known. So this film may be released by someone like Universal. This would also mean it's advertised quite alot also on the internet, on official sites as well as sites such as imdb.com.



How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our media product generally represents the social group of targeted teenagers that this kind of thing may happen to. We generally portrayed a normal 17 year old girl, who has been targeted by someone who clearly likes her, but too much as he's stalking her.



Who would be the audience for your media product?

When thinking about what sort of audience we would cater for in our thriller, we had to consider important aspects that would effect making the thriller for the right audience. For example, if we were to go for an adult audience, the actors we used might be expected to be the age of the people we were going for. So we decided that we'd go for people our age, meaning we could use actors that target our audience perfectly. This also meant that we could come up with a storyline that we think would attract us when looking for a thriller.



How did you attract/address your audience?

As i said, we were aiming for an audience of people our own age, so the main actors are people that we can relate to, just normal 'teenagers' our age. This means that the audience will be more involved in the storyline, as they could imagine them in similar situations. We have made the idea of the films storyline fit so it could be for either genders. We have done this by using both a girl and a boy as the main characters. There isn't a great amount of violence involved, so the film is generally more psycological, which attracts both genders.



What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When starting editing this product, we began using the new version of imovie that comes with the new generation of macs. However, when attempting to use this we realised that we were unable to do and try out various things that we wanted to do, and when we realised our footage was too dark, we decided to move the sequenced footage across to Final Cut Express. Once we had done this, we learnt a lot about how to use Final Cut and we were able to try out alot more effects than we would've if we'd used imovie. This also meant we could use the Final Cut colour corrector, so our footage was useable, and that we could then learn about the programme, which we found was alot more complicated than imovie.



Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Since we started the preliminary task, we feel we've learnt alot about how to use the shots that we learnt for the preliminary to create and build tension, for example we used various point of view shots to portray the stalker. Throughout the filming process of our poduct, we learnt that it's important when relocating for the film to consider any changes that may have to be made in the storyboard. When we relocated, we found that alot of our scenes couldn't be shot because there wasn't anywhere in the new location to shoot them, this meant that we improvised completely for the scenes we shot inside the house. This was generally ok, until we realised that we didn't have as many different shots as we'd like to have, it also meant we wasted time whilst filming rethinking what we would do for the second half of the opening.

Something else we feel we learnt that we really needed to think about more, was the lighting necessary when filming inside. We encountered a problem when editing because the footage shot in a certain part of the house was too dark, this was because the lighting in the room was far too soft. We attempted to remedy this by filming again, but using a spotlight to attempt to make the lighting brighter. This did make us lighter, but still not light enough. We remedied this when editing but we felt if we'd had time we would've attempted to make it lighter yet.

The most important thing we feel we've learnt since the preliminary task is how to use Final Cut, as we feel there's so much more you can do on the programme once you know how to use it. It enabled us to try out changing the colour palette of our product, giving everything a blue tinge, we didn't however decide to use this, because we felt the film was better giving a sense of realism.

editing

We then uploaded our filming onto i-Movie and edited it, cutting out the scenes that were too dark and also we tried to edit the lighting, but the picture was too grainy. We uploaded the music from garage band to our film and then trimmed it and played with the speed settings. But we still had a dilemma with the lighting with some of the scenes, and as we could not schedule an efficient time for all of us to make during or after college, it was suggested by a fellow media student that we transfer  our project to final cut!

As we did so, we lost our sound track for our project and also we lost our transitions. But we did manage to sort the lighting, even though the re-applying of transitions was fairly time consuming.

Also final cut gave us the opportunity to edit our titles, and we also played around with the colour settings to see, that if we distorted the colour,  maybe it would change the atmosphere of the film or maybe the suspence that we were trying to portray.

 We are now planning our evaluation and we also have to re-shoot our continuity sequence. 

Becky and Meg. 

Filming

Over the past week, we started filming for our thriller opening. Due to some changes with the location of the filming, we realised that we couldn't do some of the thriller as the place we did film didn't have the room to film the shots we wanted. This meant that while we were filming we deviated from the storyboard and included a large amount of improvising. We managed to get all the filming done, but when we imported it we realised that half the footage was too dark due to the time of year. We also realised that half the footage was in the night and wasn't very consistent. So we have planned to re film the rest, and have edited the film that we could use. We also created the music, and recorded some non-diagetic sound, such as heavy breathing. However as our stalker is a man, we thought we should probably record someone with less feminine breathing.

We need to make sure we keep everything the same when we re-film, like the set and clothing that the actors are wearing.

We would also like to apologise for the lateness of the animatic and risk assesment form, as we still haven't got round to putting either up.

abby and becki

Thriller Opening Story Board

The story board is a very important aspect of the end result, as without it we would'nt have planned each shot that we want to use, camera movement angle etc. This would mean when we came to shooting the opening, we wouldn't know what we were doing and it would all be made up on the spot. We also needed to think about what sound we need, and whether we want it to be diagetic or non-diagetic. We ended up deciding that we'd like a mix of both, using some uild-up music, but also including important walking noises for certain parts of the film.

This is our storyboard

abby becki meg

Thriller Idea

This is the idea we've had for our thriller opening so far:
Throughout the opening, we want to have a man who we never see the face of, we watch exactly what he does almost through his eyes, using over the shoulder shots and point of view shots.
So we watch him follow a girl home (in quite a stalker-ish way) until she gets to her house, we see her put her key under the doormatt and go inside. He then watches her through the window and we see her go upstairs to bed. The man then picks up the key from under the mat and lets himself into her house. He creeps his way around her house until he finds her room, where she's asleep. We watch him steal a photo from her room, and then we do a close up of the sleeping girls face, and hear him leave the house and as the door slams we see her eye open. We'd cut this footage up with the titles which will be white on black. The title of the film, which we haven't decided yet, would come up as the womans eye opens. After the main title, we see the man walking cockily away, and then running, and thats when we'd end our secret.

We got the idea of not seeing the face of the 'stalker' from the film 'Marnie' by Alfred Hitchcock, because we really liked the idea of mystery and the way it keeps you interested in whats happening.

Thriller Research

As for our main coursework, we're doing an opening for thriller film, we watched a variety of thriller opening sequences from different ages of films. We annotated each part of the sequence and looked at why parts worked, and why they didn't.

The first film we looked at was 'North by Northwest', directed by Alfred Hitchcock, made in 1959. Before the footage comes in, we hear dramatic string music (directed by Bernard Herman).Then, the first thing we see with this opening is black vertical lines coming across over a green background, we decided this technique was used to make it you feel claustrophobic and uneasy, making it almost prison like. They use compass arrows in the main title which links to the 'north by northwest' as they are pointing in those directions. The music becomes a bit more upbeat, which helps show that although it's a serious film, there are funny moments. Over the increasing green lines, different titles of the film appear, showing the names of main actors, copyright, company names and then the main film title. We then see the vertical lines dissolve into windows of skyscrapers, reflecting busy cars. When annotating this opening sequence, we discussed the common use of mirrors in thrillers, as they can indicate people being two faced, maybe make us see something that the character can't see, adding suspense and involving us in the drama of the film. Finally, in this case, we thought it showed a distorted reflection of the world. The cars and windows help indicate that the film may be based around work, and is definitly in a city. The fast cars then dissolves into busy people rushing past an entrance to a building, as an establishing shot. We decided that the busy cars and busy people help give an idea of realism. The music at this point is following the movement of the people, making everything feel panicked. The last shot we looked at was a high angle of people going downstairs, which looked like they were being herded.

The next film we looked at was Vertigo, again directed by Alfred Hitchcock, made in 1958. The first shot we see is an extreme close up of an eye, looking scared, this makes us question why and what this person might be scared of.

The shot then moves to various extreme close ups exploring her face but still not showing the whole face, which keeps it in suspense again but lets us know that it's a woman. We don't know anything about the woman throughout this sequence, which again leaves us with questions. It then zooms in even more to the currently black eye, and ten changes to red, which connotes blood, anger and danger to come in the film. Various spirals then appear in the eye which links in with the title 'vertigo' as it's done to make us feel dizzy and uncomfortable. The music is again done by Bernard Herman, meaning that it is very dramatic, using strings to represent the different moods in the film.

Kiss Me Deadly- 1955 Directed by Robert Aldrich

The main thing about this opening, is that it leaves a lot of mystery in what is happening and the first character we see. The first thing we see in this film, is a woman running down a road at night time, presumably from someone or something. A main thing that you notice is that she's wearing no shoes- she left in a hurry?

We then see her stand in front of a car to stop it which shows she really must be desperate to get away fast, her breathing doesn't slow down when she's in the car and driving away, showing she's still uneasy. There is the diagetic sound of her panting and of the music thats playing on the car radio, this completely clashes with the panting as it's fairly happy and romantic. As the titles comes up backwards, they obscure the vision of the car and all we really know about the shot is that she's panting. I think this is a very succesful opening sequence, as it keeps so much mystery that you want to watch what happens next.

Blade Runner 1982- Ridley Scott

This film opening was very different to the others we'd watched so far, as it sets the scene with text instead of film.

It opens with very simple music in the background, a monophonic string line, and comes up with the titles, white on black introducing the production company and actors etc. The music adds occasional drum rolls, which makes you a little more on edge. The main film title comes up in red, showing the significance of it, and the rest of the job then follow flashing in white again. Then all the information needed for the film begins to scroll in white on black again, with the occasional red word. It's the only thing on screen, which makes you concentrate on whats being shown. The music at this point is very eery and atmospheric. The location and date then appears very big in the centre of the screen, which again shows it's important information. That then fades, and we see what we assume to be the world in the future at that date, it shows various fire explosions, and zooms in on that scene. It then cuts to this image reflected in someones eyes, making us assume that it may be the main characters eye. It then cuts back to the world scene, only this time some futuristic buildings are in focus in the background, there's then a shot of a vehicle flying over a building, probably one of the buildings in the background. All of this sets the film up in a very obvious way, and gets across a lot of information at once.

Touch of Evil- Orson Wells 1958

This is a very famous thriller opening, because it's done with no editing whatsoever, and is filmed in one.

It starts of with a close up of someone placing a bomb in a car, we then see a couple get in the car, and the camera follows the car drive through a town (using a crane shot) There is diagectic happy music going on, and it shows people crossing in and out of the shot. The camera then starts following a different couple, leaving us in suspense of whats happening to the car, the couple then coincides with the car, theres a speech, which again builds suspense. Then the woman in the car says she has a ticking noise in her head, which at that point makes her sound crazy, but involves the audience because we know she isn't. The camera then follows the other couple again and eventually we see the car blow up. I think as an opening sequence this keeps you on edge about when the bomb will go off, and it keeps you in suspense for quite a long time. I also like how there is no explanation of why the bomb has been placed there, and makes you want to know what significance the couple has, as well as the couple that the camera follows instead of the car.

We also looked at

Marnie- Alfred Hitchcock 1964

Defence of the Realm- David Drury 1985

The Third Man- Carol Reed 1949

Se7en- David Fincher 1995

abby

continuity film

below is our sequence that we made to practice  film shots, that we would include in our thriller. in this we used a wide angled establishing shot varied close ups and mid shots, pans, and long shots. i think that generally it was successful, however we would of liked to include a circular pan. the story of the sequence was very simple as it was just someone washing their hands. we also included shot reverse shot to show what the person was doing and their facial expressions.

continuity storyboard

 To practice film shots and the rules of not crossing the line, we're filming a continuity sequence. Below is the storyboard that we made for it. As the basis of this sequence, we used the sequence of film we watched and annotated earlier, and tried to replicate the different shots. 

The next step is to film that sequence and edit it so it works.

start of course

helloo, this is a sum up of everything we've learnt in the past few weeks since starting AS media. We started off looking at storyboarding, where we made a dummy storyboard of an sequence. We then filmed the sequence to see whether our story board actually made sense, this showed us that the narrative of what the director intends does not always come across how the audience reads it. We did this first in a class group and then in smaller groups. This helped us consider the conventions of continuity editing.

  The next thing we did was analyse a simple continuity sequence which we storyboarded and refilmed. This helped us find out the importance of not crossing the line when filming, and look closely at the surroundings when filming. It also showed us what shots and how many are included in making one simple sequence.

  We then filmed some practice shots that are important in thrillers. To do this we got into a large group, and tried to build a narrative around the shots we were practicing. We stuck to the thriller genre and created an opening based on a man placing a briefcase under a car. We wanted to make the briefcase look like it had a bomb in it, so we used lots of close up shots of the bag, and shots of the character holding the case, to make him look sneaky. We also used point of view shots, circular pans, over the shoulder shots and a variety of others to practice these shots.

  Finally we watched the opening of the film 'Ripleys Game' to look at what enigmas are used to create suspense, for example, shots, music. 

Abby, Becki and Megan