Dolly Zoom

We really like this technique and think that we could incorporate it into our thriller opening. We like it because it confuses the eye, it makes you think that you are getting closer to something while also getting further away. We may use this type of shot when the protagonist see's the antagonist under/by the tree. This adds emphasis onto the antagonist making him seem dangerous and disorientated.

Our actors

Thomas Rudd playing the victim

Christopher Downham playing the villain

zoom trials

This is an example from Star Wars, of a fast tracking zoom. at 1.54 minuet. We have tried to create the same effect in our film.

The first example: We walked towards the character with the camera, were focusing on. Then in Final Cut we speed up the time to 400. We thought this looked the most effective out of all the trials we shot. This type of shot will look good when the protagonist is being chased by the antagonist.

Example 2 and 3: With the camera we zoomed in on the character then in finial cut we speed theses clips to 400 again. However, we didn't find this looked as effective as the first example.
In all these clips we need to make them longer by filming at a greater distance, and also that the character the camera is focusing on is still.
We may use this style of zoom at the end of our opening as the main character wakes up tied up.

Action location

We have 5 points where there is some main action. At the point numbered:

1. This is where our actor is going to bend down and take a breath because he has been running. We are going to use a mid shot of him bending and then use a point if view as he stands up straight.

2. At this point, the actor will see another person standing holding a weapon in their hand. He will see them as he stands up with the point of view from point 1.

3. at this point our actor will just be running while we use different shots.

4. After our actor has run through the woodland area at this point he will see the person again.

5. This point will be when our actor starts to speed up and turn his jogging into fast pace running. Also at this point he will drop his ipod on the ground and we will zoom into the ipod.

6. This is the last point where our actor trips and falls over an object on the ground. We then zoom into his face to show he is unconscious with a cut in his face.

Location route

This is the route that we are going to use in our thriller opening. It starts of by the actor running through a grave yard, then entering a large field, then they run through a woodland area and entre another field. After they go though another woodland area and enter another smaller field.

Deadlines for our Film

11th Jan to 15th Jan: Thriller introduction.

18th Jan to 22nd Jan: Analysis of real and student examples/ Production logos.

25th Jan to 29th Jan: Planning and delivery of pitches.

1st Feb to 5th Feb: Storyboarding, shot lists and other planning.

Cameras are available from Friday 5th Feb at 4.10pm until shooting deadline of 9am Monday 8th March. Students can have 2 overnights or one weekend to film. There are three weekend slots available ( 6th & 7th Feb, 27th & 28th Feb and 6th & 7th March).

8th Feb to 12th Feb: Filming.

15th Feb to 19th Feb: HALF TERM. NO CAMERAS OUT.

22nd Feb to 26th Feb: Filming and editing.

1st March to 5th March: Filming and editing.

8th March to 12th March: 8th March Shooting deadline. 2nd lesson of this week is Rough Cut Deadline. Third lesson of week, rough cut feedback.

15th March to 19th March: End of second lesson of the week is Final Cut Deadline. Last lesson of the week, feedback on final cuts and re-introduction to Evaluation questions.

22nd March to 26th March: 9am 22nd March is Interim writing deadline. Lessons this week are for feedback on interim drafts and revisions/writing.

9am 29th March: Final writing deadline.

Makeup

For our thriller, we are planning on having a protagonist will wake up, tired up to a chair, in a abandoned room. This means that the protagonist will be beaten. This video we found on Youtube will help with the hair and makeup of our main character. The makeup around the bruises will be natural, this video will help create these pale, bruise effect.

Titles

Today we put together our opening titles in photoshop. We decided to use two different fonts for the text (Infiltrace and Perpetua). We saved each line individually as a jpeg and ensured that the background was transparent ready to edit onto our opening sequence.

Certificate

Our Group thinks that our Thriller will be certificate 15 because of the plot of our film. The ending in our opening my be distributing for children under the age of 15 due to the victim being beaten and trapped up in the end scene. According to the BBFC our thriller film wouldn't be suitable to younger audience do to the violence, murder, crime etc.

Certificate...

• 15’ works are stronger than '12' or ‘12A’ rated works and could include any of the following:
• strong violence.
• frequent strong language (eg 'f**k').
• portrayals of sexual activity.
• strong verbal references to sex.
• Sexual nudity.
• brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence.
• discriminatory language or behavior.
• drug taking.

We have chosen this certificate rating because we are more likely to make more money.

Equipment

The equipment/programs we have decided to use are the following:

A camera
(To film the shots)


A Tripod
(To ensure steady shots).


Photoshop
(To manipulate images and create our titles).


Final cut
(To edit clips together and put together our opening)


Garageband
(To create our soundtrack)

Influences

One of our influences would have to be Alma - a short film by Rodrigo Blaas. We liked how the film built tension throughout and would like to create the same atmosphere for our thriller opening. We particularly liked how 'twin' doll brings alma into this deserted building and then she turns into the doll herself. We have come up with something like this, in the way of, as soon as our protagonist falls over, he wakes up to find himself tied up, similar to way Alma is trapped inside the doll.



Another one of our influences is 'Silence of the Lambs.'
We liked the how they create suspense by following the main character whilst she is running as it create tensions and fear. It makes you assume that something bad is going to happen as she runs into the fog. We also would like to create this type of tension as we follow our character whilst he is running. This would set up the tension and make the audience want to carry on watching.

The crafts man

The name we have chosen for our thriller opening is 'The crafts man'. We have chosen this name because of it's relation to the villain in our opening.

As you can see to the left, we have made two samples of the possible fonts the title will be seen in.
- We have decided that we all prefer the bottom font because of the appeal of the traditional style.

Font experimentation

These images are similar to the plot of our opening. We have done font experiments to see what colours are sizes look good on images. This picture is similar to our ending where the protagonist wakes up tried to a chair. This part should be dark to hide the identity of the hiding antagonist so the font colour would have to be light to show up against the background.

This forest image is similar to the location where we have chosen to film. We expect the forest to also be dark as we are film in the afternoon/evening time. We found red stands out against the dark background and also it makes it eerie and the red connotes blood and danger. Also it is easy to read.

The main duration of our opening is someone running. So the background would be of the floor so either tarmac (grey) or grass (green). We have chosen a deep red as we thought it looked bold. The Infiltrace font is easy to read and the deep red makes it look more classic but threatening because of the shade of colour and size.
We thought we would try a picture with pulse font to see if it would appear effectively against the background in comparison to Infiltrace. The font works better against a contrasting background instead of just a black background. We also had to spread the text out as this is a larger font and wouldn't fit properly along the bottom of the screen. We think Pulse would be a better option as we can pay around with it making it look like a pulse.

Font-Infiltrace

We tried the different font Infiltrace to see if it looked more effective. We found this font worked and looked better because the font was easier to read compared to Pulse. We think this font look's good but isn't as eye catching and original as Pulse. Therefore, we may use this font for the credits and have Pulse for the title to make our film title bold and eye catching. The font look's good in smaller font size, as well as when its bigger, unlike Pulse. This therefore, shouldn't be a problem when we come to add it into our title sequence.

Sound samples

In our thriller there is a part when the main character sees another person standing in front of them holding a weapon. When the person sees them, its like a flashback/hallucination.

For this part we want to have quite a sharp/eerie sound. On garage band in special effects we found:

alien impact



booming rumble



door vault closing

Target Audience

The target audience for our thriller opening are for older teenagers and adults around 16-26. The certificate would have to be a 15 or 12 at the lowest, depending on other scenes which might happen later on in the film.

Our opening scene would be unsuitable for children under 12, as our ideas can be quite scary and could be quite disturbing for children. For example, when the protaganist is running away from the antagonist and then waking up to find himself tied up.

The Villain

The villain in our thriller opening is obvious to the audience from the beginning, this helps the audience get right into the story straight quickly. However, it isn't obvious if the villain is real to the main character or not, as it appears to be a flashback or some sort of dream at the beginning.
We will have our villain holding some sort of weapon (yet to be decided) and "following" our main character around, which is why it is obvious to the viewers that it is the "bad guy". An example of how we want our villain to be presented is shown below.

Why we love thrillers.

Each genre of film has a specific aspect of its style of entertainment that makes us, the audience keep going back for more. Comedies make us laugh and put a smile on our face, animated/family films enable us to enjoy watching something that would normally never happen and open up our own imaginations along with the rest of our family.

But what do thrillers do?

Thrillers let us go on an adventure along with the rest of the characters as the story unravels, but in a safe environment. One of the fun aspects of a thriller is that you are kept guessing as the storyline often leaves you in suspence. This means that you can try and work out what is happening along with the characters, by putting clues and evidence together to come to your own conclusion, which often will be wrong, as twists are often introduced, but we don't mind, as this keeps thrillers exciting and unpredictable.
I think thrillers are more appealing than horrors, mainly because horrors are often too graphic for a wide range of people, whilst thrillers are more subtle, they still give the shocks audiences want, but in a way that doesn't use images that could be disturbing.

I don't think younger audiences will appriciate thrillers as an older one will. Thrillers are often clever in putting together stories and requires the audience to really think about what is happening. Basically, younger audences may get lost or not understand.

I do think that you have to be in a thinking mood to watch a thriller, because usually you can't afford not to concentrate or you won't be able to get back into the film as you lose concentration or part of the story.

Music inspiration

Below are some clips of music videos that we thought were appropriate inspiration to our soundtrack or the look of our video later on.

I liked the eerieness of the video, which includes the darker lighting and the blood running down from her chest rewinded added to the edginess of the video. The fact she's in an enclosed room a lot of the time reminded me of our last shot of our opening too.



What I thought was most interesting about this video was the drama and intensity in the song (which builds tension) and the inverted colours, to make it look like a negative image, which makes it appear scarier to the audience.

Preparing to shoot.

Today we prepared to shoot the shots of our thriller by confirming the location (as you can see a couple of posts below) and suggesting possible dates to film.
We all exchanged mobile numbers to ensure that, if on a day of filming, someone doesn't turn up for a scene, we can call them to make sure they can make it.
Lydia asked her brother and his friend to take part in our thriller, because we thought it would be more appropriate for males to act in our thriller rather than us, so we can make decisions easier within our team and inform the actors exactly what to do later.

Possible sound choices

As we drew up our storyboard, possible soundtracks were thought of to go along with each clip in the scene. Each shot gave us an idea of how the sound track should go.

We came to the conclusion that it would be suitable for a lot of diegetic sound. This means the audience will feel more involved in the action that is taking place.
First of all, our main character is running leisurely - this gave us the option for the sound of feet hitting the ground as he goes along. We will have to take into account the different types of terrain the character is runinng on, for different sounds, which will make the scene more realistic. Running also gives us the option for some sort of breathing in the background, to show his energy.
Other diegetic sounds in the background could be played too, for example, the wind and its effects (eg, trees swaying), cars and animals (birds chirping).
Another main diegetic sound could be the sound of the music playing on his ipod, it will have to be slightly muffeled though, as he is listening to it also. When the time comes where his headphones fall out, the music could either stop, or get slightly clearer, depending on how eerie we would like the scene to seem.

The non diegetic soundtrack could be played all throughout the opening. This could include eerie sounds, drumbeats and possibly even the sound of the characters heartbeat to show the tension in the scene.

We will conclude to what our final soundtrack should be like when the time comes to use our resource garageband to see what soundclip options we have.

Titles

We tried using the font "Pulse", although this was one of our favorite fonts, we found it difficult to read. This may just be because it is in white and not black as it was originally on the website.
We tried the font in different sizes, a small font was hard to read and the letters looked to close together.
A big font was easier to read, but would look too big on the screen of our thriller.
We also tried to spread the letters apart using spaces between each letter, but that didn't look right.

So, we thought it might look good as just the title name of our film opening as we could make it big so it should look right.

Costumes

Our main character is going to be wearing a hoodie, tracksuit bottoms and trainers. These all give the impression that the character is out running for exercise, rather than running away from something or someone at the beginning. The hoodie is necessary because the character needs to have his hood up for almost the whole course of the scene - this gives the impression of insecurity and that he wants to keep himself, to himself which is an impression also given off by the fact he's got his ipod on with headphones in, which is a prop we will have to use.



Our second character will be wearing dark, possibly draping clothing, to create a sense of mystery. Their face will not be completely shown, so dark make up or a hood which keeps their face in the dark should be worn. Their identity can't be shown at the beginning, or else the mystery may be given away.

Costumes are an important part in any genre of film. They are the easiest way to reflect a characters personality, in an obvious or a subtle way, depending on what messages the film wants to show. I remember watching a "behind the scenes" to a film called 13 going on 30. The costume designer talked through the messages for the outfits of the characters. She said the main character wore softer fabrics in neutral or pastel shades to reflect the characters mood and gentle personality, in this case, sweet and kind (example below). However, the villan of the film was seen to be wearing a lot of darker, harsher colours, like red, to give the hint of her "evil" personality. We have to think about these sort of aspects for our own thriller and develop our ideas for the costumes further, to give subtle messages to the audence.

The location

Here are some photos of our chosen location:

We have chosen a lot of open spaces (fields) which gives a feeling of uncertainty and lack of security, which adds to the tension of the film. However, the end shot, where our character is tied up, is going to be in a smaller enclosed room, which will give the opposite effect, in creating a "claustrophobic"/"can't escape" atmosphere.

Timeline

We have prepared a time line of the entire opening so that we could work out where was appropriate to place the titles on the scene.
It also gave us an idea of how we should edit the clips, to see how long they should be to keep within the time limit.


Working out our time line also pushed us to work out how many titles we needed. We decided on...

Preparing the location shots

Today we had a look at our storyboard and we had to take note of which locations we were going to use for filming. We then had to write down what scenes we needed to shoot in one particular location - this ensures that we don't miss a shot and don't have to revisit a location which saves time.

We also had to note down the shot type, this will help prepare us in case we need any special
equipment to help film a shot (e.g. a dolly).

We have narrowed the font down to three. We may use two of these fonts, one for the opening credits and one for the title of the film.
We like "Sketched" for the handwritten effect which makes it stand out. We would use this if we had fast editing to make it look more personal and if the antagonist wrote the credits.
"Infiltrate" stands out for its elegance and fancy writing. The group agrees this font is effective and would maybe be nice as the credits.
"Pulse" is the most eye catching as our opening involves protagonist running in a dream. This font would go nicely with our opening if put with a heartbeat special effect along with the music. Similar to the title opening of "Se7en" which has a faint ticking noise throughout the opening.

We have decided to try with two different fonts "Infiltrate" and "Pulse". However, we were indecisive so we have decided to try both font and see what see they look like in the finial editing.

Font examples

We got these fonts from www.dafont.com. We think they go well with the genre of our film opening.