Hi my name is Reece Bennison and I am currently studying at Aldenham School. This Blog will have a daily update about my on-going progress regarding the different steps I am taking in contructing my media Project.
Thriller films
This is a title picture for my project which will be a thriller film
Permission form: This is a permisson form signed by Will Kirby, the only actor in our film and it gives permission for him to be included in our film.
References: My blog may include images,videos and music files from such websites; www.freesound.org www.freeplaymusic.com www.youtube.com www.google.com
4th Febuary: Today we started editing using the Adobe CS3 editing software. This was the first time we had used it since the prilimary task so admitidly we were still familiarising ourseleves with the programme. After two attempts of getting our footage we were ready to start editing with everything we needed on tape. Today we just uploaded all of our filming on to the computers and saved it in the correct format so we were ready to start next lesson.
6h Febuary: To start off we deleted all of the filming material which was no suitable for the film. After this we started to cut the different shoots into the length we desired.
8th Febuary: As we had already manipulated our footage and filtered it into what we needed, today we wanted to put all of the film in order so it was easier for us to edit as we could watch it through and spot imperfections.
10th Febuary: Today we started to search for the appropriate uncopyrighted music. This proved a task which was extreamly long winded because there were many websites offering uncopyrighted music which was not what we were looking for.
12th Febuary: After many days of searching we decided on using these music files in our film.
Classic Music: Edvard Grieg(www.youtube.com) Drum and base Music: Energy - Drum and base (www.freemusic.com) Mysteriuos Sound: Fox scream (www.freesound.org) Heart beat monitor: Heart beat monitor (www.freesound.org)
13th Febuary: Finally the last task regarding our editing was to include the title and credits. To think of a suitable and unique title we sat down amoungst ourseleves and brainstormed.
The best 5 Titles we came up with were:
Nightmares Dark days Delusion The Ascension Adrenaline
After much deliberation we came to the conclusion that the most appropriate name was the ascension and we designed a fitting ending which helps asscioate the ascension of this character into heaven with a bright light after an inevitable and obvious death.
7th January: Using the information we gathered yesterday regarding locations we decided to design the plot. We started off by brainstroming in a group about different ideas that we had and eventually decided that this plot was the best and the most effective way of producing a powerful and tense short opening to a thriller film.
Plot:
*Heavy breathing with black screen *Sudden cut to a man lying in a tent (bird eye view camera) *Shocked man awakes (disorientated) *The distressed man leaves the tent to investigates *Night time/extremely quite *Man wonders around for a bit followed by a slow 360° pan of the surrounding *Still no noise other than heavy breathing (from the beginning) *He calls out and shouts a few times *A loud animal/bang noise in the back round *Man then sprints into the dark forest (drum and base music then starts in the back round) *POV camera angle of the running man (free movement) 7 seconds *Dramatic Cut to an inside shot of a man driving a car down a country lane (classical music playing) 7 seconds *Cut back to distressed man running through forest 5 seconds *Cut back to car 5 seconds *Cut back to running 2 seconds *Cut back to car 2 seconds *Cut back to running 1 seconds *Cut back to car 1 seconds *Increasing in tension throughout the cuts (music gets louder and faster) *Cut to a bright screen with loud bleep like when someone dies in a hospital *Followed by title and credits (Daydreaming)
This is not the complete plot but it is a start and an understanding of the direction we want to head in.
11th January: Today we decided more details regarding the making of our film.
ROLES: We decided that Will is going to act in the film and that all of us will play a part in either editing the film or filming the film.
LOCATION: We are also going to film all of the film in and around our school campus.
TIME: It will be filmed at Night time (Dark)
DATES: Start Filming Wednesday 27th January and if we don't finish then we will complete it the following Wednesday.
PROPS: We will need a tent, tourch, Car, Camera/Camera equipment
SHOOTING SCHEDULE: On the day we start filming we will film the our video in this order: ~The running shots (approx.20mins to film) ~The tent shots (approx.40mins to film) ~The roaming shots (approx.15mins to film) ~The car shots (approx. 15mins to film) 14th January: Today I wanted to investigate the specfic types and examples of music we are going to use in our video.
An example of a well known film that shows how important music is to increase tension is Rocky.
This clip and its soundtrack helps take the audience on a emotional journey of courage, hard work and determination and is an extreamly important factor in making the film as popular as it is. This just empahasises the importance and the potential impact a song or soundtrack can have on its viewers. It does not just increase tension but almost gets the audience excited and raring to go as if they were about to fight like Rocky. The soundtrack to his training is also important because it is an upbeat motivational song which inspires him and the audience involved.
The Drum and Base Music that will be playing when Will is running through the forest, is to increase tension and show the audience of the adrenialine associated with the situation. Because we cannot use actuall songs due to copyright issues, we would want to use a song similar to this :
The Classical Music that will be playing in the scene with the car is to represent calmness and will be a contrast to the drum and base music as the scenes cut. We would want to use some music similar to this:
Other important noises we were considering using in our film are such things like a fox scream. The fox scream will be used in the film to scare the man and cause him to run into the forest.
Another noise is the flat line noise on a heart monitor, to use at the end of our short film to show that a death has occured.
21st January: We talked and decided as a group the extented plot/story line to the whole film of which we are doing the first two minutes of. The Story revolves around one man and his ability to deal with these powerful and vivid dreams. The first two minutes of the film introduces the first nightmare in an extreamly dramatic way. The fact that the film starts immediaetly with a short period of calmness followed by extream action, helps attract poeple to the idea of our film and gets them hooked from the start. As the story devolps this man begins to feel the affects of these nightmares in his everday life and it focuses on how it changes him in a negative way. This story goes on to see the man eventually go crazy and provide a significant hinderance to soceity.
22rd January: When making a clip or film you must consider if it is suitable and if suitable for what ages. I beleive my clip will target those people aged 12 and above. Here are the rules and guildlines of which your clip or film must meet when making it availiable to those aged 12. 12A/12 – Suitable for 12 years and over.Exactly the same criteria are used to classify works at ‘12A’ and ‘12’. These categories are awarded where the material is suitable, in general, only for those aged 12 and over. Works classified at these categories may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. The ‘12A’ category exists only for cinema films so would not apply to my short clip. Discrimination- Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned. Drugs- Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail. Horror- Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained. Imitable behaviour- Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised. Language- Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent. Nudity- Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet. Sex- Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable. Theme- Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers. Violence- Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.
My clip does not breach any of the regualations mentioned above and therefore I would confidently classify The clip and storyline as a 12.(The imformation above was provided to me through the bbfc website)
28th January: Yesterday we started the filming of our task. We set the tent up and started filming, but as we needed it to be dark we left it too late and it got too dark and we were unable to film what we wanted. We now must film next wednesday which is the 3rd Febuary, but this time we will learn from our mistakes and will complete what we need to on our next attempt. Although we did not film what we wanted, there were some positives which came out of last night. We learnt how to build the tent and this will ensure that we will be able to construct it swiftly in the future. We also worked well as a team and built important team sprit. As we were filming I noticed that every memeber of the team was excited and passionate about our film and storyline and that everyone is willing to put everything needed into the project to make it a success.
29th January: Here is our aims and plans for the rest of our project: 27th Jan - 3rd Feb : Complete Filming 4th Feb - 13th Feb : Editing 22nd Feb - 27th Feb : Editing/Rough Cut 1st Mar - 6th Mar : Rough Cut/Final product 8th Mar - 13th Mar : Evaluations 15th Mar - 19th Mar : Presentations of Evaluations 22th Mar : Hand In
3rd December: We discussed amongst each other aspects regarding what we associate with thriller films/clips. This task helped me understand what I notice in thrillers when watching them and important traits which make a thriller a thriller.
4th December: I completed this mind map which includes what I personally think a thriller is/ involves:
7th December: Today I decided to investigate the definition of a thriller to help me understand what a thriller is. The most common definition of a thriller I found was: “a suspenseful adventure story or play or movie” Other important information I found that helps me define and understand the genre of thriller; *A thriller is a book or film which is designed to keep the reader or viewer on edge with suspenseful and sensational action * This genre is incredibly large, and thrillers often overlap with pieces of work produced in other genres; mysteries, for example, are often thrillers * Thrillers typically involve sudden plot twists and lots of red herrings, for example, keeping people unsure about what is going to happen * Thrillers also have a lot of action, which is often chaotic * An example of a long-established thriller genre is the spy thriller, featuring an often heroic and dashing spy who must confront whichever enemy happens to be popular at the moment.
8th December: I decided that making a questionnaire and asking people around school about the different questions regarding thrillers will help me understand what other people associate and expect from thrillers. I asked a group of 10 ten people when making my questionnaire.
QUESTIONNAIRE: 1. USING ONE WORD DESCRIBE A THRILLER RESPONSES: EXCITING(4), SUSPENSE(2), TENSION(2), DARKNESS(1), BLOOD(1)
2. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THRILLER? RESPONSES: GOD FATHER(5), BATMAN-THE DARK NIGHT(2), JAMES BONDS(2), JAWS(1)
3. WHAT WAS THE MOST RECENT THRILLER YOU WATCHED? RESPONSES: TWILIGHT THE NEW MOON(7), 2012(2), HARRY BROWN(1)
4. WHEN WATCHING A THRILLER WHAT LOCATION WOULD YOU SAY MAKES IT EVEN MORE TENSE? RESPONSES: FOREST(4), WATER(3), PUBLIC(1), OPEN FIELD(2)
This questionnaire has helped me identify what other people like or look for when watching thrillers. This questionnaire will hopefully help me include stuff what people want.
9th December: From my questionnaire it is clear to me that the most popular thriller film from my sample is The God father. Here is a short clip which I am going to analyse to see why people love it so much and can possibly inspire me when brainstorming when making my own thriller film.
After watching the clip I believe people enjoy watching The God Father because it is shocking and everything that happens is unexpected, this add mystry and I feel that people get more involved and fixed on a film when what happens next is unforeseen. Also I believe that people love it so much because they can almost relate it to real life situations as criminal activity is thriving in Western Society in the 20th/21st century.
10th December: A thriller I have always enjoyed is the Film Psycho. It is an iconic thriller and was made many years ago. Here is a clip of the film Psycho
The reason why I feel this film was so successful is the way in which it uses the back round music to enhance the thrill and drama of the film. Even though this film was made many years ago, I feel this is still one of the best examples I have seen of how big a part the back round noise and music can play in a thriller film. This clip of Psycho and The other clip of The God Father have helped me recognise what makes these films so unique, popular and will hop fully inspire me to make a film with the same impact.
11th December: To expand and build on my knowledge about films of the thrillers genre I had decided to do some research on the film Taken. I will focus on the role played by the actors and how the directors have set up the trailer to increase tension to draw the public into watching it.
After watching this trailer I was immediately drawn into the experience and wanted to watch the full film. The director has manipulated the content really well by showing extremally strong emotive parts of the film with out giving the rest away. He also uses some affective techniques such as "picture in picture shots",some powerful dialogue and a change of setting lighting which are all extremely affective ways of which he used to promote the film.
15th Decemeber: Our project is to produce the begining two minutes to a thriller film, and I feel that it would help me significantly to familiarise myself with the first two minutes of other thrillers to inspire me and help me come up with a good plot line for our short clip. I have decided to look at the opening of the film "city of god".
The First minute of this film has a black screen with no sound and has the credits running. Personally I feel this is a slow and unaffective way to open a film and I genrally prefer action or tension to start a film off and play the credits at the end. However after the first minute you see the introduction of a strange location which is accompanied with music and backround noise. I feel that this would have been much more affective if this was the opening of the film opossed to the credits. From the end of the first minute to the end of the secound minute, tension slowly increases with the music getting louder and the cuts getting quicker, this is a common technique used to increase tension.
6th January : Today we decided to produce a brainstorm to help us gather ideas regarding locations.
Locations that we assiociate with a thriller film :
Dark house Forest Lake Desert Country side Car Ally way Factory Buildings Empty villages Island
Out of all these locations we came up with, we decided to filter out realistic targets of which we can elaborate on and use in our film. The ones we consider realistic are the forest, country side, car and alley way. Hopfully this brainstorm will help us make our plot line and story boards and we can set our film around a location instead of setting the location around our film.
26th November: On this day we started our preliminary task (mainly organising our plan of action like mood boards and delegating each other jobs to play in the task like acting etc..). We also started filming.
27th November: We continued with our preliminary task and managed to get all of the filming completed.
30st November: We started to use the computers and software to edit our filming. We managed to complete most of the editing.
1st December: By the end of this lesson we had completely finished our preliminary task and saved it in its rightful format to ensure that it is safe for future reference.
Preliminary Task Summary: We started our preliminary task on the 26th and we finished filming, editing and saving it on the 1st. As a group the first thing we did was plan our shots and designate each other roles to play in the preliminary task. We planned our task using a story board, which helped us indentify the different shoot types we needed to use throughout the film and helped us plan affectively and split the task up into manageable chunks. As soon as we finished the story board we went about setting up the setting to accommodate our needs for the task in hand. After we set the scenes up we started filming and we were completed by the next day. Editing, applying the specific formats and saving were also completed swiftly and we were completely finished soon after we started. The preliminary task helped me and the rest of the group gain valuable experience using the equipment and also helped us establish our roles within our group. Overall I feel the preliminary task helped us bond and interact and will undoubtedly provide invaluable experience and will help us thrive to work as an affective team in the near future when filming our thriller clip. Although we worked well within our group in this task, in the future as a group we need to involve each other more because there were times when certain group members found themselves with nothing to do. Our delegation in the future is an important thing we need to work on because if we delegate affectively we can divide up the tasks to ensure that each member of the group is working as well and as hard as the others.
