Tuesday 1 May 2012

Craig Jackson's Thriller Evaluation

Representation of a social group




We decided to represent the mentally ill in our product in this way because we believe it shows that the mentally ill aren't always responsible for their actions and that sometimes they can be suffering from delusions in their mind which have been implanted in their mind to make them to terrible things. I showed this as sound editor by putting in low pitched, quick and dramatic sounds which show the protagonist is terrified of his antagonistic subconscious and that he feels the need to give in and obey him.

In 'Shutter Island' there are some similarities to our product with the protagonist in the film Teddy Daniels turning out to be the same character as the antagonist Andrew Laeddis. Laeddis is represented as someone who is schizophrenic and has invented themselves a new role. Laeddis pretends to be an anagram called 'Teddy Daniels' who is a US Marshall. He does this so he can forget that in reality he is Andrew Leadiss, a man who shot his wife after discovering she had murdered their three children. In our film the antagonist and the protagonist are both the same person and they are mentally ill. They have both also lost touch with reality and so both are extremely delusional.
I believe the way we have represented the mentally ill in no way represents all mentally ill people, but it's something which can possibly happen as a result of an untreated mental illness such as severe schizophrenia. This is backed up by the real life case of Grammy award winning drummer Jim Gordon who could hear voices in his head which came in all different forms but with the most frightening voice to him being the voice of his mother. When, in his head, he could hear his mothers voice it would stop him eating for forcing Gordon to go into hiding to eat a box of fried chicken before the voice returned to stop him from eating once again. He also believed the voice was controlling his hands and stopping him from being able to play the drums. Gordon was so mentally damaged by his undiagnosed condition of schizophrenia that after killing his mother police found him frightened that the same assailant who killed his mother might come for him aswell. This is very similar to our portrayal of the mentally ill in our product where the voice is so convincing and has such a powerful life over the person suffering with the illness that it completely controls what actions they take and can eventually lead to them committing an awful crime such as murder. The voices of the antagonist (or subconscious) in our film which the protagonist hears are so convincing and threatening to him that the protagonist is prepared to do what ever he can to get rid of them much like in the case of Gordon. Therefore I believe that our film does accurately represent some cases of mental illness although our representation of the mentally ill shouldn't be generalised as to represent all those who are mentally ill.

Our film challenges the stereotypical assertions most people have about the mentally ill who assume schizophrenics are evil when in fact they are normal human beings who are severely ill. What we try to show to the audience is that their illness may make them carry out horrific acts however this does not necessarily make them callous people. I believe that our film is different from Shutter Island as I believe that there is no real message of representation about the mentally ill and I believe the narrative of the film has been constructed for purely entertainment purposes with little purpose of representation. I believe our story is more similar to the case of Jim Gordon as in our film we portray the protagonist as a victim of his subconscious and I think we can see that with Jim Gordon he is also a victim of his subconscious as it has tortured him into a situation where he felt the need to kill to make it stop which is exactly the same as what happened with our character. I also believe that those who know the case of Jim Gordon will also find themselves challenging stereotypes about the mentally ill whilst they would also find themselves challenging stereotypical assertions about the mentally ill if they were to watch our media product.

 Film review


 ‘Twice’ is a psychological thriller set in London which follows the story of James McGrath, a schizophrenic who is manipulated and harassed by his subconscious until he commits out horrific acts of violence such as murders and bank robberies. James perceives his subconscious to be a strange and callous individual who will soon let him go once he has carried out all the acts that his subconscious has demanded of him. As far as James is concerned he is just as much of a victim as all the people he has shot, stabbed, choked and tortured. Completely oblivious to the fact that it’s simply his imagination which is forcing him to do these things, James soon finds out for himself that there’s nothing he can do which will finally satisfy the bloodthrist of his sinister subconscious. He becomes terrified of what his subconscious is going to make him do next and so he sets of to go into hiding in an abandoned home. Whilst in hiding the police discover enough evidence to prove that the biggest serial killer in London since Jack the Ripper can only be James McGrath and they set out to conduct the biggest man hunt Britain has ever seen. Mean whilst James has still been unable to escape the mental torture his own subconscious puts him through and he begins to realise he has to attempt to escape his mind whilst unaware that he also has to escape the police who have been told they need to catch him dead or alive. James’ battle with his own mind has now turned into his own battle for survival. However, will James be able to escape his subconscious in time to organise a way of fleeing the police or will his subconscious drive him to life imprisonment, or worse yet death?

What magazine would be likely to feature a review of our film


I think that a review of our product would be most likely to appear in ‘Sight & Sound’ magazine as Sight & Sound features a lot of low budget films with a niche audience, such as Hunger as seen on the front cover,  and I feel that our film would probably appeal to a niche audience and would be more likely to be shown in picture house cinemas as I don’t think it’s the type of movie which would be a mainstream Hollywood production. This is because the narrative to our film has been constructed so that it is more about being symbolic of changing a commonly held stereotype that people with schizophrenia commit crimes because they are evil or twisted. I believe that films which are mot intended for symbolic purposes rather than entertainment are usually niche films whilst mainstream Hollywood movies are generally more about entertainment than a particular symbolic message. I also feel that our movie would appeal more to informed film goers who are more able to appreciate symbolism in films rather than the type of audience who watch films simply to be entertained.  I believe that sight and sound target this type of audience more as their articles are generally more complex and more detailed than other film magazines such as Empire which cover mainstream films and in much less detail.


What I've learnt about technologies form the construction of this product



The video camera we used for our product was good as it allowed us to capture everything without the image looking shaky. This was because the tripod was very stable and the camera was excellent to move on it. This allowed us to have a more professional image which improved the overall quality of our product. However, one problem with using these cameras was that the battery life wasn't particularly great and so it ran out of battery before we'd finished filming. Fortunately though we'd got nearly everything we'd needed and so due to our quick working it didn't have as much of a detrimental affect on our product as it may have done if we hadn't already finished filming. As we have had previous experience with using these cameras we didn't learn anything new about them.

This was my first time using Garageband and as sound editor I had to sue it alot which meant I learnt alot from using it. Whilst using this software I learnt how to create soundtracks from a large mixture of sounds and how to time when they play effectively to produce a film in which the sound helps build the atmosphere. A second thing I learnt was how to quiet down and increase the sound so that it can fade in and out as I like. A third thing I learnt about using Garageband is how to cut down the sound so that it would play effectively The good thing about Garageband is that it was pretty simple to learn to use and so I was able to produce the soundtrack I wanted without encountering many problems. However, the bad thing about Garageband was that it was sometimes hard to find sounds that were exactly what I wanted. I had to spend along time searching through many different sounds which didn't fit in with our thriller at all before I could finally find some which did.
We used Final Cut in order to edit the film so that we could have effects in it such as when the film flicks over from what is happening to show the antagonistic subconscious. We did this so that we could show what is going through the protagonists mind as he imagines this man telling him to kill the guy in the chair. However, to the audience they will not be fully aware of this and so it creates dramatic effect. This was a big part to our opening sequence and so it shows that Final Cut is actually very good editing software. I can't make any criticisms of it as I believe it efficiently did everything we wanted it to do.


Our use of, challenging of or development of opening sequence conventions and thriller conventions

  
Opening sequence conventions














In the still above we use the opening sequence convention of introducing setting by showing an establishing shot of the carpet shop our opening sequence is set in. This introduces the audience to the setting of our carpet shop and the sound track which I produced has hard hitting low pitched noises which creates an eerie atmosphere in the carpet shop and adds more drama to the opening sequence.
















The still above shows that we are challenging the opening sequence convention of introducing characters as in our opening sequence it isn't made clear that our character who wields the knife is mentally ill or that the hooded character is the subconscious of the other character. The reason we have challenged this opening sequence convention is because it was necessary to ensure that we followed the thriller convention of establishing enigmas. By establishing this enigma and mystery around what exactly is going on our opening sequence is more in line with a thriller  opening sequence and also the audience would be more interested in the film as they would be curious to know what is going on. If we had of revealed the enigma then our film would no longer have been a thriller.




















With the opening sequence convention of introducing themes we have challenged this convention as we don't directly introduce themes in our film. Instead, as the still above shows, we had pictures of the brains of schizophrenics which flashed up on the screen and sometimes came in  faded during the action in order to hint that what going on is something in the mind. We did this intentionally as a suttle way of introducing the characters so that we could include a opening sequence convention whilst at the same time maintaning the thriller convention of not revealing any enigmas.

Thriller conventions








As the above still shows, we have challenged the thriller convention of having an antagonist that exploits the protagonists weakness. The way in which we have challenged it is instead of having a antagonist and a protagonist we have unified both those roles as the character wielding the knife could be seen as a protagonist but at the same time they're subconscious is a antagonist who is trying to pressure him into killing the man sat in the chair. By unifying the role of the protagonist with that of the antagonist the audience is left with a dilemma of deciding for themselves whether the main character is good or evil. It also means that the protagonist is technically being exploited it by themselves. You could however argue that we haven't challenged this thriller convention and that we have instead used it as we choose to display the antagonistic subconscious of the main character as being a separate character who is hooded and quite manic. However, our intention was not to create them as two separate roles but instead have them unified and display to the audience how a schizophrenic can have two sides to their personality that seem complete polar opposites to each other.

As sound editor I used the thriller convention of having a brooding and fairly dark atmosphere presented to us through sound by putting in a hard hitting and loud escalating soundtrack which builds up the tension to our narrative. Aswell as this I believe it represents the sharp sense of fear felt by the protagonist whom wields the knife. 




In our product we used the thriller convention of establshing enigams. As the above still shows, we did this by not making it clear that the antagonist and the protagonist are the same person and that the protagonist is being exploited by their own subconcious. By not making it clear we hoped it would make the plot more interesting and also we hoped it would challenge and change the minds of those who don't believe severe mental illnesses such as schizoprhenia is an excuse for comitting crimes. By showing the genuine fear the progtagonist has for their antagonistic subconcious we hoped that it would show schizophrenia can have a severely detrimental affect on the behaviour of those who have it and that it can make them do things they don't even agree with themselves.


Our journey from the preliminary task to our final product

 

 
 





My IMDB page for our film


Tuesday 27 March 2012

Bryn Walden-Jones Self Evaluation

1.   
Challenging, Using and Developing Conventions of
Thrillers and Opening Sequences


A main convention of Thriller films is to conceal identities. In our opening sequence, we have tried to make sure that the antagonist is always partially hidden. The screen shot above shows how we have purposefully positioned the antagonist facing away from the camera and in other shots the character's face is either covered by hair or a hood, or by his dark clothing (another thriller convention). Using this technique forces the viewer to question the status of the character and helps to build an enigma.


Here is a shot used in many thriller films, an extreme close-up. We have used it here as our initial introduction to the protagonist. I think the shot works well in giving an insight into the characters feelings, but also does not give away to much information and therefore sustains the viewers confusion.


Our thriller opening contains a third character. This challenges conventions of most thriller films because, to begin with, the audience does not realise that the protagonist is in danger. However I think that this is able to create more of a shock for the audience when they begin to understand where the problem lies.


In our thriller opening, we have used an opening sequence convention by integrating the credits between shots. This works well because the credits slow down the feel of the opening and work as thinking spaces for the audience. It helps the audience concentrate on the opening and involve themselves with the speed and rhythm of the opening. Having these gaps between shots also helps build tension.
Behind our text, we displayed images that relate to the forthcoming story.


Like other film opening sequences, our title is displayed at the end. We developed this by using editing to make the text flicker. This reflects how the protagonists mind is not functioning properly either.

2.
Representation of a Particular Social Group
In our thriller opening, we have tried to represent people suffering from mental illnesses through the protagonist. The protagonist is suffering from some sort of Schizophrenia or hallucinations and the antagonist is just a figure of his imagination. Therefore, to show this, we used editing to create flashing shots of the antagonist.

Similarly in some of the opening scenes of the film Fight Club (where the protagonist also has hallucinations of the antagonist) the "flashes" are used to show the protagonists imagination as they are only used when the camera angle is in his point of view. All of the flashes are shown in this Youtube clip below.


Below is an image of a brain scan with the illness schizophrenia. We used this in our opening to describe the illness more and also show that the story line of our film is realistic because we have proof of the represented group. 


3.
Here is an IMDb page for our film.

4.
5.
Voiceover - How Did We Attract/Address Our Audience


6.
To edit our opening, we used final cut express.  We had to learn how to add in transitions and credits. Final cut was easy to use because our work was previewed all the time.
We used Garage band to create our soundtrack. It took a while but we eventually learnt how to use it. We were able to match up our soundtrack precisely to our film because garageband also previewed our work.




Thriller Evaluation - Harrison Twinn

IMDB and BBFC Certification



Paramount Pictures might want to distribute our film. Paramount distributes films with dynamic such as 'Top Gun'. 'Twice' has a dynamic feel to it and has a sort of uniqueness to it.

Software and Equipment


Final Cut Express helped me learn about how to create dynamic scenes using transitions such as cross-dissolve and to use quick cuts during the editing process. One of its drawbacks that we had to solve was its incompatibility with other cameras other than what we have been provided with.


GarageBand was useful for using loops that were provided that were appropriate for our footage. Changing the tones and reverbs for the instruments were also a very useful feature to have as a plus for our thriller. One drawback was that it was hard for us to synchronize the soundtrack in time with the film.
The HD camera and tripod that were provided for us were very easy to handle and operate. The quality is also a big plus. One problem with it maybe is that the tripod wouldn't be very useful in limited spaces.

Magazine and Review


Total Film Magazine might be one example that could include our film in a review. On the cover of this magazine is 'Inception' which has the subconscious as a key element in the film which is similar to ours. Like the cover of this magazine, our sequence is set in a dark setting but it uses ordinary things, such as a building, and turns it into something extraordinary, which is the title. This is one thriller convention and our sequence has this kind of level of supernaturalism. This magazine tends to have sub-genre films on the cover as well. 'Inception' is an Action/Thriller. 'Twice' can be considered both Thriller and Crime/Detective. And just like 'Inception' our sequence has some unique element to it which is also what this magazine might go for.
This magazine includes films within its contents that seem to fit within the age range from 12A-15. I would consider our sequence to be around the age range of 15.
Because this magazine likes films that are blockbusters or are very interesting and clever, such as 'Inception', they do tend to exaggerate them more than any other magazine (e.g. bad language etc). I would consider our film to have an interesting plot and an interesting enigma to be on the cover on this magazine.

Review - 'Twice' comes to cinemas with a thrilling twist that will have you asking for answers. Caesar is the main character in this story, or as we would see it, the protagonist...but for how long? Alongside him, is Cain, the antagonist, who is the manifestation of Caesar's darker side, and the one responsible for causing insanity to fill your wide-screen cinemas with a disturbance that will have you praying for no nightmares anytime soon. The reason for this you ask? The answer...the horrible turmoil that Caesar has been put through by his suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder. And because of this, Cain takes a full advantage on his host and pushes Caesar to do his immoral bidding. From quick cuts and static screens in editing to reverbs and echoes in sound to the symbolistic images of light and darkness (good and evil), 'Twice' will have you on the edge of your seat with enigmas and complicated webs that will have you baffled. So, for how long will our protagonist play his beliefs of peace and non-violence as the pacifist? Will he play his role the whole way through? Or will his true, hidden self bring out the evil thoughts into action by the knife that he carries? And also, what is Cain's goal and how long will he keep it up before the law catches up? So many questions...the answers? Well...see for yourself...

Representation of Social Group

Twice

In 'Twice', our thriller opening sequence includes the social group that relates to people with disorders such as Schizophrenia or hallucinations. We represented this by using a second actor to be the split-personality of the protagonist, who is the antagonist or the doppelgänger . The antagonist wears black clothing to represent the darker side of the protagonist. At the end of our sequence the antagonist drives the protagonist to insanity through harsh ways to force him into immoral decisions. We represented this particular social group, because it gave an insight into what people who had any of these symptoms of a particular disorder were feeling and experiencing.

Black Swan


Similar to our thriller opening sequence, 'Black Swan' also uses the idea of a doppelgänger to represent a split-personality in the main character, which in this film, like ours, is a darker side to the character. Also, it is similar to our sequence in the way that the main character is forced mentally by the other self.

Real Individual


The real individual who would have a disorder that was represented in our sequence would have these symptoms and would be driven to any path that the disorder leads the sufferer to. In our sequence, we only outlined one aspect of what schizophrenia can cause, but in reality, this kind of illness can give many outcomes.

Thriller and Opening Sequence Conventions

For the conventions of the opening sequence, we included the credits for each role that were given to a particular member of the group and we used them during fade outs throughout the sequence to give some suspense to it as it went along. Also, we placed the title at the end so that the audience can understand its purpose after seeing the sequence.


Also, we used images in the credits and sometimes the footage in the sequence to set up and develop the enigma for our narrative. We did this with flickering images so that we could give it a representation of the mind, which was represented as somewhat vivid, yet unclear at the same time. And because they were images that resembled scans or x-rays, the flickering could represent the flickering backlight that a hospital would traditionally use to show these images.


Normally, the antagonist would be carrying a weapon, such as a knife, to kill his victim. But instead, we made the protagonist to carry the knife in our sequence. So, in this case, we challenged this convention because we wanted to give a conversion to the protagonist so that at the end of the sequence he will become the antagonist, the same as his subconscious.


The unknown figure was also another thriller convention that we have used. The shot that best shows this, is this shot, because the darker spot in the carpet shop is where the antagonist is standing, and not only does it flesh his character out as being evil, it also contributes to hiding his identity away from the audience. This shot almost looks as if the darkness is creeping up to the protagonist, who is in the light.


And lastly, another key convention we used in our thriller opening was of the 'Achilles Heel' of the protagonist being exploited by the antagonist. In this shot, the subconscious (the antagonist) is seen in its insane state, which in this case belongs to the protagonist. This not only reveals the weakness of the protagonist, but it also fleshes it out with a different perspective, being a dark setting and a character that expresses the insanity within the protagonist.

Prezi - From Preliminary Task to Final Thriller Opening Sequence


Monday 12 March 2012

Rough Cut Feedback - S125

1.Use of conventions.
The construction of enigmas is prominant because we are kept unsure of what is going on (without being given the feeling that is 'made-up on the spot' or that is is overly confusing).  The protagonist can be seen in peril in the opening sequence of twice. One example of this is when the character in the black hooded jumper can be seen in pain, it is also seen that other characters in the opening sequence are insulting the personality and moral decisions.

2. Cinematography.
It uses a wide range of camera angles appropriately to convey a sense of mystery. This is done so over the use of close-up (which display the characters emotions which within the opening sequenced shown the confusion on the character's face).

3. Editing
The use of static video gives a distorted feel to the film, This means that the audience is unnable to guess what the next event in the film will be. Transitions are mostly cuts with some fades, which fits well in the film because it doesn't detract from the action. The film is edited chronologically and with parrel editing.

4. Sound
The use of diagetic and non diagetic sound  creates an atmosphere of fear, one example of this is when one of the characters yells 'do it' to the other character.

Rough Cut


Production Logo

We tried to make the production Logo quite dark to match the style of the the thriller.

Sunday 4 March 2012

Strategies to market film

Posters





First Poster - Schizophrenia


Since our film is related to insanity or, in this case, Schizophrenia, we might want to portray the two characters this way to show this level of madness.

Second Poster - Empty Chair in run down room


The chair is where the victim sits during our opening and the background of the destroyed well, can show insanity that works in contrast with the clean and tidy chair.

Trailers





Mr. Brooks - 2007


A trailer like this would be great for our film when it comes to marketing. It outlines a person who has a obsession for killing, and he has two sides to his personality. This is quite similar to our film.

Merchandising


The subconscious in our film wears black clothing, but the hoodie that he wears is essential for concealing his identity from the audience throughout the opening. This hoodie might be great for marketing.

List of credits and research on fonts

List of credits


- 'Directed by Harrison Twinn, Curtis Stearn'
- 'Sound by Curtis Stearn, Craig Johnson, Bryn...'
- 'Edited by Harrison Twinn, Curtis Stearn'
- 'Cinematography by Harrison Twinn, Curtis Stearn, Bryn...'
- Title - 'TWICE'

Fonts


For the credits for directing, editing etc, the font we could possibly use are of letters and words that are crumbled or shattered. It would somewhat reflect insanity or madness which is an element we are trying to represent in our film.
For the title, we could possibly use the same font as with the credits, but bolder and bigger. And since the title is called 'TWICE', we could use a kind of shadow on the title, to reflect upon the characters and the idea of two of the same person.

Specific challenges we have faced

- During the filming process, the spacing in our location for shooting was very limited and for some parts we had to improvise with different camera angles with this amount of spacing around us.

- The location was interior, but the exterior was very bright. To overcome this, we used a dark filter for the camera so that the location around us is darker.

- The storyboard and shot-list we wrote up before filming doesn't exactly match up with our film, as new ideas were added and some shots that we couldn't do were taken out.

- At one point, our location wasn't available and we had to use a different location that was different to what we intended to use.

- During our research, we decided to use ideas that stood out or were unconventional whilst keeping some conventions of thrillers within the film. Some ideas that we have were not conventional in some thrillers and it was hard for us to represent the ideas we have and incorporate them into our thriller.

Friday 2 March 2012

Analyzing opening sequence of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The opening sequence of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo contains many quick shots which appear for a very short amount of time before moving on to the next one and then the next one. THis quick flashing of different shots immediately grabs the attention of the viewer and makes them wonder why there is so much excitement going on. The fast pace also suggests that the film is going to be very exhilarating and therefore it appears from the opening sequence that it's going to be a very exciting and fast paced thriller.

The black liquid we can see flowing in the opening sequence is also moving at a very quick speed which suggests to us that the flow of the film will be quick whilst the darkness of the liquid suggests that there is a dark and mysterious element to the film. The fact that the most predominant color in the opening sequence is black tells us that there is an absence of good in the film and that there is something dark at work. The choice of song which features screaming also creates a dark and intense atmosphere for the opening film whilst the burning flames we see suggest there is conflict to come in the film.

Monday 27 February 2012

Skills that we have developed


  • The preliminary task has given us experience in filming and using equipment such as tripods and cameras.
  • It has also helped us learn programs such as final cut express and garageband when editing and creating soundtracks.
  • It has given us an insight into what makes a thriller and how we would use cinematography, editing, sound and mise-en-scene to create the conventions.
  • When filming our preliminary task we learned to meet deadlines better and stick to our schedules.

My individual contribution so far

For our thriller opening work my individual contribution has involved coming up with the basis for our production logo with our production company name being "footprint productions" and also coming up with the footprint logo. Bryn was able to successfully edit this logo into one with a clouded background which we believe makes it more fitting to a thriller film.

I have also taken part in the decision making process on whether we should have the sub-conscious, who is the antagonist, being shown as being a different person or whether we should show them as being the same person to make it clearer to the audience that it is the protagonists sub-conscious. I suggested that we should show the sub-conscious as being the same person so the audience would understand what's happening. However, in the end we decided to show the sub-conscious as appearing to be an all together different person. My suggestion was a important part to the development of our film as it made us realize that we had a dilemma of making what's happening clear to the audience by clearly showing that the sub-conscious is not a different character or of making the sub-conscious appear to be a different character so that  there are no enigma's revealed in our opening sequence. 

Research of film detail page.

Here is a detail page of the film Snowtown from the IMDb website.
The page includes:
Title
Directors, Writers and a cast list.
Images of a poster and snapshots from the film.
Quick summary of the film, as well as links to related genres.
Information about when the film was made and how many awards it won.
Reviews from other viewers as well as ratings.
Extra technical notes explaining the films colour, frame size.
Trivia "The film is based on a true story"

Film Magazine Covers

Inception - Total Film
The front cover of this magazine contains a lot of variety of tones which makes it atmospheric. It stands out as it uses big fonts and uses a well know film to fill the cover. It also has interesting captions and slogans which promotes the films inside.


The Dark Knight - Empire Magazine
This is a very dark front cover and is abstract making it more original and stands out from the other film magazines. As a main element of the film 'The Dark Knight', it uses darkness to contribute to the effect of it standing out.


The film magazine that would be most likely to contain a review of our film is 'Total Film'. This magazine seems to contain thriller films that are original and unconventional such as 'Inception' and 'The Shining'. Our film can relate to these films and that's why we think our film would be suitable for a review for this magazine.

Sunday 26 February 2012

Thriller Conventions Analysis

Protagonist's weakness is exploited by the antagonist


We took an unconventional approach to this, as the protagonist in our sequence is the killer (but he does not want to kill). And the antagonist is his own mind, or in other words his subconscious that pushes and drives him towards wrong decisions and in the end leads him into killing a victim. The subconscious plays with the protagonist's mind as he reappears in certain places and makes harsh comments on him (or in this case, himself). Using editing, we wanted to not only let the protagonist experience this confusion but also the audience, cutting to different jump shots so that it would seem that the subconscious was something other than human (from one shot where he stands in one place, to the next shot when he isn't there anymore).

An Enigma


The enigma in this sequence revolves mainly around the subconscious. We intended to not reveal that he was the protagonist's own subconscious, but instead, we gave away hints so that the audience will have some grasp on the character.
We didn't want to use a voiceover for the subconscious as there wouldn't be much mystery to the enigma, and instead we used a 'split-personality' element to create the subconscious as a character.
Also, one of our ideas was that the protagonist was the only person who could see the subconscious, and to show this, we used Mise-en-scene (hood) and cinematography (long shots, mid-shots, jump shots etc) to conceal his true appearance. This way, it can make the audience be in that exact same situation of not being able to see his face.
We gave some hints, such as the clothing of the subconscious which was black. This colour can represent evil, or the darker side to the protagonist's mind. Another hint is the way he moves about. In editing, as said before, jump shots were used to show his movement, being in one place at one time and then gone in the next shot.

Friday 24 February 2012

Challenges of the shoot.

One of our biggest challenges will be trying to partially conceal the identities of the characters using darkness but not making things too dark that it has conventions of a horror or that we are unable to clearly make out what is happening. Because of this how much lighting we use will have to be deeply considered when we arrive at the set of our film.

Also, we need to create an enigma of weather the subconscious is not not real

Review of Equipment


Software
We used garage band to create our soundtrack. It was hard to use because it needs to be created from scratch and express our ideas from only being able to use the limited samples available. In some ways it was helpful because we could listen back at our work.

To create our opening we would need to use final cut express. It was quite easy to learn how to use as we already had experience of using it. Also, we were able to watch our edited clips. The process of editing takes a long and learning how to do special effect often took extra time.

When creating our production logo, we needed to use photoshop. We had experience in this also but with a different version of photoshop so some of the our ideas did not look as we planned. Sadly we were not able to take our on photos so our images had to come from clip art.

A lot of times we need to upload pictures from a camera for things such as location checking. For this we used iphoto. this wasn't helpful because the photos would not come straight to the desktop. However we were able to just drag and drop them out of iphoto to anywhere and uploading pictures only took one click.

Blogger, the website we used to display our work was simple and easy to use but worryingly everyone else was able to get to our work and edit it as well, this felt unsafe.

Hardware
The cameras we used to film with were high definition. Also, they were small and light weight which meant it was easy for us to take them to filming locations. However, being small, they were hard to handle sometimes. They did unfortunately pick up a lot of background noise, this meant we weren't able to hear speech too well.

Because the cameras were sometimes hard to handle, we would often need to use tri-pods to steady our shot. It was able to change to many different heights and lengths but not enough for when we needed to do some high angled shot.

The compact cameras we used to take pictures of our work on paper and our location searching, were very useful because they only took 2 minutes to upload to the blog. 


Pros and Cons of using the equipment/software

Software - Pros


- GarageBand has a variety of sound effects to use for the thriller, not just different instruments for a soundtrack.
- Final Cut Express lets us edit and rearrange clips into a sequence with ease.
- Photoshop lets us use a variety of techniques to enhance a production logo to a professional extent.

Cons


- GarageBand can sometimes be limited to what you want for a soundtrack.
- Final Cut Express can sometimes have difficulty in rendering and converting a film.
- Photoshop can be difficult to work with first-hand and can take some time to learn.

Equipment - Pros


- Camcorder is in HD quality so we can get a good quality for when we upload it to YouTube.
- Tripod is steady and professional-like.
- Filters can help enhance a shot for a certain purpose.

Cons


- Camcorder can pick up unwanted background noise - wind, airplane noises etc.
- Tripod can be take us space and it can ruin a shot if not used properly e.g not set up properly.
- Filters may not fit camcorder and may not be of correct use.

New skills that we've learnt

- We've learnt how to create enigmas which giving too much information away, to make the audience more immersed in the narrative.

-  Learnt how to create an interesting character - 'Achilles Heel'

- How to use a camera in different ways with different effects to give the atmosphere we want.

- Using Final Cut Express to edit clips and use transitions.

- Using GarageBand to create different uses of sound - ambience and tempo to build up tension and suspense.

Our target audience

Audience

- The target audience we are aiming for is the young adults
- Those who are interested in psychological thriller films are targeted in particular

Directors

Richard Kelly - 'Donnie Darko' - This film compares well with our thriller as they are in a similar sort of narrative. The plot shows a man who has a mental delusion which no one else but him can see.

Christopher Nolan - 'Inception' - This film revolves around the subconscious which is a crucial element in our thriller.

Martin Scorcese - 'Shutter Island' - This film has madness and insanity as its enigma as well as the element that pushes the narrative forward.

Possible challenges for shoot


  • The weather could affect the atmosphere of the setting, for example, if it is a sunny day it could ruin the mood and tone of the thriller.
  • The space in the carpet shop could be difficult to work in as it can be limited and small.
  • It is difficult for some members of our group to travel and find the location which we are shooting in.
  • In some shots we may accidently film pedestrians walking past the location which could affect the realism of the situation.

Review of Equipment

Software


Iphoto - To upload photos from camera to blog (Storyboards and location research)
GarageBand - To create music for thriller
Final Cut Express - To edit and rearrange different clips from camcorder to the software
Photoshop - To create the group's production logo

Film Equipment


Camcorder - Records footage
Tripod - Steadies shooting - professional. Useful for shooting different angles.
Filters (Optional) - To makes shot seem dark/light or different colour.