Planning:Filming location

Location for filming- Stubbing Court, Wingerworth.

I have decided to use this location as it is secluded and isolated which is perfect for our thriller. We as a group have decided to make a supernatural thriller and many films use similar locations as it is easy to create tension whether it be the sound of leaves crunching or trees creeking in the wind. We have the ability to film inside the house as it is in my family and is therefore easy for use to film here. 

 

Planning:One Page Proposal

Working Title: ‘Mind Games’ is our working title, it shows the mental health issues of the murderer and that his own mind is playing games on him.

Film Genre: Horror/Thriller

Length: Estimated 2 Minutes

Target Audience:

·        Age: (15+ Year Olds)

·        Level of Intellect: Anyone can watch however it does leave questions which

·        Lifestyle: People interested in thrills, mystery and drama.

·        Income: Anyone

·        Culture: Appeals to British (Dialogue = English)

·        Bias: Towards males due to only male actors

·        Audience Tone: Average film goer, inquisitive and interested audience.

Tag Line

“The more you know, the more it takes controls”

 ‘What If’ Premise

What if you honestly believe that you are innocent even though you committed the murder of your two friends?

The Story Synopsis​

It said that the mind has complete control. That it can make you do things, things you might not want to do, bad things, things you thought you were never capable of. But can you remember these things? As the mind further consumes it host, how do you escape it...can you escape it?

This is the story of what is supposed to be a calm night in with three friends; however they are all completely unaware of the horrors that may befall. As one friend battles against the severe mental problems threatening to take over, how will he cope with the sudden disappearance and death of his two friends? Will he start to unravel the truth behind the killings or will his mind take control? Certain of his innocence he battles with his unforgiving mind. But who really committed the murders? And will we ever know...?

Audience Appeal

We understand that our target audience (15+) would be seeking jump-scares, eerie atmospheres and the occasional sense of mystery. Baring that in mind, we believe that our final piece will be made up of, and consist of all 3 of these elements. Once our piece has been fully watched over we're definite that questions will be left unanswered (in a cliff-hanger type of manner). Questions such as "how did they become so inhumane?" and "could they of possibly escaped safely?", making the audience really think about the plot and what different outcomes could have occurred. We could imagine young, yet mature actors to embody these roles. Actors such as: Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Dexter Darden. These 3 could really capture the characters innocence yet potential to survive. Leaving that question of "are they capable?"

Visual Realisation

The look of the film with is very dark, mysterious, gloomy and the pacing will be fast. Films like this could be the clip called 'lights out'. Ours will differ because it involves our characters mental health but is similar as we also aim to show a minimal amount and use the power of suggestion. Another film in mind would be ‘Shutter island’ that took the same psychological approach and is a very good approach to that genre so is a good source to refer to.

Research:The Representation Of Disability

I have been looking at issues around the way in which disability is represented in TV dramas. Representation of social groups in our thriller opening is something we need to take some informed decisions about.For example the article called 'Unlimited:Disability on screen' tells us how in the 21st century, TV dramas have been able to represent a wide range of disabilities such as motor neuron disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions.It also shows us how during the Great War, newsreels recorded the rehabilitation of visually impaired and physically disabled servicemen where as in the 21sst century these rolls are commonly played by fully able-bodied people.

Another article on how:women, old, and disabled people are still under-represented on TV tells us how women and older people are still under-represented on television even on some of the UK’s biggest-rating shows.It also tells us how only 2.5% of the population of people that appear on TV are disabled,people over-55s accounting for just 8% of entertainment presenters and 12% of lead roles in drama,Lesbian, gay or bisexual people comprised 1% of the overall TV population and people of ethnic minority taking up only 13.4%.

Another article shows tells about how Ricky Gervais has improved the lives of disabled people for
the way they have highlighted discrimination and ignorance against disabled people.In advertising, drama series, sitcoms, soap operas or comedy panel shows, disabled performers are notably absent and Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are trying to produce projects which tackle our culture of discrimination and ignorance against disabled people.The article also explains how the only place where you will find disabled people routinely featured is in documentaries; but in these there seems to be a demand for a type of misery heavy portrayals of disabled "victims" or "burdened" carers.

In the final article i read through i found out how the influence that the media holds over society has not always been used to society's benefit, particularly in relation to disability, where the media has continued to add to the discrimination of disabled people.For example the way the media use an  underpinning use of disabled stereotypes.It also tells us how in 1991 disabled people were commonly shown as being pathetic,an object of curiosity or violence,sinister or evil,as atmosphere,laughable,his/her own worst enemy,a burden, Non-sexual and being unable to participate in daily life.

Planning:Brief ideas for our thriller film

We decided to mind map a few brief ideas of what we want our thriller to be like, these brief ideas included:

• Roles in the group - what each individual member will be contributing to the task.

• Location - just a few short ideas on where we want some of our scenes to be shot e.g. woods/beside a pond.

• Plot ideas - we decided to brainstorm a few plot ideas we may incorporate in our thriller. However these notes are brief and may not be followed as written.

• Genre - we decided we want to mix the horror/thriller genre as it gives us a wider audience of film lovers and we believe by adding the horror element we can incorporate more effects.

Research:Lighting Effects

We decided to play about with lighting within our group. We tried to use un natural lighting in a dark room to give the character a rather sinister look.

In this photo it shows the character (Frank) with the un natural light source shining on the right side of his face showing his facial expressions. Whereas on the right side of his face there is no light and therefore creates a mysterious and sinister effect. We may consider using this effect in our thriller. Also in this photo the lighting creates a shadow effect in the background, this was not intentional however is a technique we could look into using.

In this photo we decided to put the un natural light so it was shining under the chin of our character (Frank) this created the sinister effect we were looking for as it shows all facial expressions but doesn't give off any of the background. This again is a technique we may consider using in our thriller.

Research:Seven Textual Analysis

http://prezi.com/ow27yzmyut2c/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Research:Effects of cut aways

Effects of cut aways

 

we have done this post to show how different techniques can change the ways in which certain scenes can be perceived. one scene could be seen as a different genre depending on what ios to follow, it can create a different emotion.

 



This use of a cut away above makes the character on the left look crazy and sinister with the character smirking at a dead body. However the cut away below shows a characters reaction to another character making a funny face which makes the scene much more comedic and funny.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

https://prezi.com/3msi47vs5zkg/preliminary-task/

Conventions Of A Thriller

What Is A Thriller?

A thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, gaming and television. It includes numerous, often overlapping sub-genres. Here are a few examples of  the different kind of thrillers:

 

Spy thrillers (James Bond)

Political thrillers (Argo)

Military thrillers (saving private Ryan)

Conspiracy thrillers (The insider)

Medical thrillers (Coma)

Forensic thrillers (the bone collector)

Psychological thrillers (seven)

Horror thriller (silence of the lambs)

Common Characteristics And Features

Suspense music
 

Low key lighting

Quick cuts

Shadows
 Long corridors         

Ringing phone (no answer)

Hidden characters (shower curtain)

Close ups (not showing much of the scenery)
 
Often overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the structure of their plot

Thrillers often occur on a much grander scale: crimes are more serious

Standard plot elements include a sense of jeopardy.

Climax: when hero finally defeats villain, saving him and others.

Some thrillers are influenced by film noir and tragedy, the hero can get killed.

Often take place wholly or partly in exotic or dramatic settings e.g. cities, deserts, churches, airports, subways, Polar Regions, the woods or high seas.

Finished Preliminary Task

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9hYX85Aq8M&list=UUht5fxUjha19_XNfG0mi2EA

Finished Storyboards

This is the storyboard for our groups preliminary task. While filming we had many new ideas so the storyboards do not cover everything we filmed. However, many of the camera angles shown in the storyboard were still used in our filming.

Preliminary Task

We have been asked to do with a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door,crossing a room and sitting in a chair opposite another character. Then the character must exchange a few lines of dialogue.

Also while filming this task we must include 3 different kinds of filming shots/techniques which are match on action(where a shot is edited from one view to another view that matches the first views action), shot/reverse shot (where one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character) and the 180-degree rule(shown in the diagram below).

Framing A Shot: Practice With Stills

The class was set with a task of getting into small groups and going round the school premises and taking a variety of images consisting of different camera angles. However, I was not in the class at that time so i was not able to do this task so instead i have acquired these pictures from a friends group.The following pictures are what they were able to take.

The picture above is an establishing shot. Establishing shots are useful because they instantly show the context of an area which gives the audience an idea of what kind of place a character is in whether it be a calm countryside or a busy city street as well as what time of day it is when the scene is taking place.

This image above it of a mid range shot with leading lines. Leading lines are lines within an image that leads the eye to another point in the image.With the shot being at a medium distance it gives the audience a lot to look at and see and whats going on around and in the scene with the characters.

 The picture above is an extreme close up.The shot is so tight that only a detail of the subject, such as someone's eyes, can be seen.Extreme close ups are very effective to used if your trying to display someones emotions very clearly.

The picture above is a low angled shot. This shot can represent the targets dominance and power.

The shot above is a long shot which is generally used as a scene-setting and to give the viewer a idea of what the surroundings look like.

The pictures above are 3 different angles of the same object which is useful because it offers the viewer different perspectives of the same scene.

Introduction

Hi im Gabriel from Tupton Hall School

I've always wanted to understand more about film making and how films are produced and hopefully be taking media I will be able to understand a little more about this. I've worked on editing clips before when I used to upload to YouTube on a weekly basis so I have some experience with editing software. I also watch a lot of movies and series in my free time so I understand a fair amount about different kinds of shots and filming techniques, well at least I think I do. I am looking forward to filming the opening of a thriller movie , I think it will be a cool experience to record and edit my own introduction. Really looking forward to this course.