Evaluation - Question Seven

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

The preliminary task was done to test and use the camera and tripod equipment aswell as getting to grips with what makes a successful shot. We had to create a very short scene of two people having a conversation. One character had to enter and leave. It was done to display how to use very simple shots and to know how to use the editing software.

When looking back on my preliminary task I have learnt to adapt  myself rapidly to constricted space and delays we may have had. In our preliminary task our characters were posited incorrectly and overall as a group noting was organised. Using the tripod was a rather difficult task when first using it in the preliminary task. At first it was hard to position it correctly and I struggled to not create a shaky shot. Whereas in the final thriller opening I adapted to using the tripod in a successful way. The preliminary task taught me how to use specific techniques such as how to actually use the equipment. I learnt how to record, playback and how to put the footage on to the mac. With the tripod I learnt that the key with creating a steady shot was to keep the legs level  and this could make the difference between a median shot and high angled shot (by placing the legs at different lengths) and finally with the editing in the preliminary task I learnt how to upload, crop and publish a film sequence.

This overall prepared me for the making of the opening thriller film as I was able to use these skills and advance them to not only make a steady shot but a successful one that represented the convention of a thriller. I was also able to adapt my editing skills to add filters such as black and white instead of just uploading and cutting the footage.

Evaluation - Question Six

*needs adding to prezi because it wasn't working when made improvements...


The sound we used is the thriller sequence was mainly non-diagetic sounds that where added in the editing stage. The majority of sounds where provided by final cut pro which made it easier for me to access copyright free music. I wanted to also include the song tip-toe through the tulips but the original song would've been copyrighted so I struggled with using this particular song. I then continued to research online covers of the song and found a very similar sounding version that someone had put on youtube. I was then able to use this song and was happy with the way it eventually turned out. The credits that I used in the rough cut was very straight and didn't have any jagged effect, after thinking about the effect of the font. It was was decided to change to something more scribbled to show Camerons personality and the unstable atmosphere of the thriller. This specific type of technology helped me add to the typically suspenseful atmosphere of the thriller genre.

Evaluation - Question Five

How did you attract/address your audience?

I had to do alot of research to discover what was necessary to creating an accurate target audience. Primary research such as group discussions about our thriller favorites and what we personally liked where heavily researched. I looked further into my own favourite thrillers and dug our what I personally thought was successful. I noticed from films such as shutter island that my main influence for disturbia was the microelemts and characters involved. I had to also think about age certificates and what the outcome might be. By example would a 12 be too mild? and an 18 be too disturbing for the target audience. I wanted a narrative that was clearly put together and left the audience confused and wanting to discover more before executing this idea. I had to get an opinion of my audience first providing and creating personal questionnaires I was able to gather the necessary information to proceed with my ideas. These included iconography and setting preferences. As well as what sub-genres people preferred. Overall this research helped me to discover what my audience wanted. I was able to see that physiological thrillers were a favourite and that was ultimately what my aim to provide was. In addition to this the overall mind map to discuss accompanied by secondary research such as the questionnaire helped educate me on the things the audience preferred. I was able to learn from this particular secondary research that things such as low key lightening in thrillers and the physiological sub genre as well as isolated setting and even iconography used such as knives which they said was more personal and made them feel like they was more involved with the characters themselves.

Evaluation - Question Four

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Target audiences are important to new productions due to the intense need for popularity. Lots of aspects need to be considered such as, who would this appeal to? what age? what gender? what type of people and the things that would be needed to promote this film in the best way. For example such as children's films that are age certificate U on channels such as BBC or CBBC.

For my thriller opening disturbia the target audience is aimed at teenagers aged 15 and onwards. I believe this age group best suits my thriller as it involves relatable characters that are the same age which can result in escapism to some audience members that are dealing with the stress of exams. The narrative of my film remains to be very confusing, almost puzzling. In disturbia you have to really use your mind to figure out the characters and there intentions. This will work well with a teenage audience as it will keep them engaged when they are in fact stereotypically easier to distract then others. The main soundtrack which is a cover of the song tip-toe through the tulips by Tiny Tim can be recognised from the film insidious which is a very popular film known for being frightening. Teenagers will recognize this and be drawn to the film even further. Micro elements such as cinematography and mise-en-scene can also be manipulated to appeal to the target audience, this can be seen from the particular costume Harmoney wears. She is dressed in a sixth form uniform and smart clothing which shows her vulnerability for being a school student, she would also be able to relate to a specific type of audience. Possibly our target audience who would also normally be in school, they may be able to see how well she is acting and behaving in this type of enviroment of pressure. The fast paced editing filled with montages of different time periods in the opening sequence, remains to be intriguing to an audience that are displayed to be bored of school and other responsibilities. They are stereotypically longing for something to keep them entertained. This can also be seen from the cleverly adjusted shots that involves POV shots, specifically when Cameron murders his mother. This invites the audience further to making them feel frightfully responsible and engaged in the murder. This could be compared to as the same type of effect video games have on teenagers which remains very popular as stereotypically our audience want to fit in and feel in control. The target audience was something we all had to consider carefully. This was mainly due to the fact that the film had to be suitable for certain ages under the opinion and regulations of the BBFC. Our thriller film does remains very disturbing but doesnt contain any sexual references or bad language. It does however contains mild violence that could fighten younger audiences. This is why most of the ages for films of the thriller genre are presented as being age 15. Disturbia would also follow this trend as we feel the BBFC would approve due to the lack of gory and detailed death scenes.

Overall the target audience will acknowledge all the things mentioned and be drawn to the very unique side of Disturbia through the manipulation of the micro elements and narrative.

Evaluation - Question Three

Evaluation - Question Two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My thriller opening represents an average teenage social group with a twist. The characters and situations in the thriller can demonstrate how family trouble can lead to disasters. I have 3 characters in my thriller production. Cameron, Grace and Harmony.

Cameron is the main antagonist in the product but remains to struggle with right and wrong. In my thriller opening 'Disturbia' Cameron is represented as a teenage boy struggling to deal with his emotions and mental illness. The majority of teenagers at Cameron's age go through several physiological illnesses such as depression and anxiety. The use of mise-en-scene specifically, Cameron's costume remains to be all in white when he appears innocent. When his other side is present he wears all darker colours such as grey and back. This was included to show a clear representation of how teenagers can typical switch quickly, due to hormones and stress. One moment they may be happy and in a pleasant mood. The next very dark and frustrated. Cameron remains to have the same stereotypical features of a teenager due to his very closed attitude. His body language is actually very isolated and he always appears very stiff, with no interaction with other people such as family. This is often how teenagers are stereotypically received. Which is convenient as our target audience may relate to his struggles and see our thriller film as some disturbed type of escapism. 

In addition to this Harmony (The main female character in our thriller) is displayed as a stereotypical teenage girl. She is seen wearing a school uniform which shows how she is someone that may be going through the normal school issues as someone the audiences age. The audience witness her struggling to get through to Cameron. This is a common stereotypical feeling as to how teenagers are displayed they long to be wanted and listened to but often feel like they are being neglected. The audience may also relate to Harmony as they may feel that they also want the best for Cameron and she may be the one to help him. Harmony was included into the thriller opening not only to show that Cameron had people how cared about him but to also play apart in the film that connected the audience in a way that didn't cause them to escape, but result in them wanted her to get through the the main antagonist Cameron.


Gender is stereotypically represented in our thriller opening due to the typical convention of the male being the antagonist and the female, older mother appearing as the victim. This is displayed when Cameron murders his own Mother (Grace). The fact that Grace is displayed as very weak and frail, whereas Cameron is more dominant in attacking her shows a clear display as how gender can be represented stereotypically. Grace is someone who has struggled with her son at a young age. As a widowed parent she has found it hard to keep up with her son and although she appears as a very loving woman she finds to hard to connect with Cameron and often ends up frustrating him. Most audience members may feel empathetic towards Grace's situation although they may struggle to relate to her because her situation is very unique and rare to be in. People may struggle to feel her pain as it is such an intense storyline and is very confusing to most people on how she can put up with such an intense mother and son relationship.


 Like in most films that are steretypical such as in genres such as fairy tales its usually the prince saving the princess and the female always being the damsel in distress which juxtaposes the position of the male, who typically plays the strong, protagonist/antagonist. Either way stereotypicall woman are normal either attacked by men or saved by men and in my thriller opening it follows the narrative of women being attacked by the stereotypically dominated male antagonist. This was incorporated into my thriller opening not only because it is a convention of a thriller, but also it gives the audience a more realistic view of how the film industry can manipulate certain stereotypes to there advantage.

Evaluation - Question One

Introduction

Our overall brief was to plan for and create an opening thriller sequence. Myself, Claire Golightly and Jake Butler. All made up a small group to contribute to the process of completing this brief. In our group we each had different production roles.There are many different roles in production that need to be given to different members of the group. These roles involve director, director of photography and other numerous roles. I took on the role as director, actor and editor. When filming, I had responsibility of making sure everything was in its place as director. As sharing this role with Claire we were both responsible for making sure that everything was in its correct place and everything that was needed on set was there to continue to maintain the narrative we wanted and the atmosphere of the thriller opening. I also took on the role as editor. I loved being able to put the finished thriller together and see it become more than just a series of clips. I enjoyed adding the music and filters that really contributed well in creating the type of eerie psychological thriller we wanted.Our group was able to work well together, although different jobs had different responsibilities everyone worked well with the specific role they was aligned with. I think that in the end through maintaining a very chilling and suspenseful atmosphere. We had studied the micro-elements of thrillers and tried to adapt them as much as possible in our own thriller opening scene.

Question One - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Overall media has taught me how thriller conventions are presented within films. I now know what to expect and how to identify conventions of a thriller. 'Shutter Island' was a main focus of inspiration for me. I was personally able to gain perspective into what I wanted to achieve in my brief. Shutter Island is a physiological thriller. It's narrative remains to be about a detective that turn out to question his own insanity. I incorporated this type of protagonist/antagonist into my own thriller opening through the character Cameron. Cameron is a character with the mental illness - multiple personality disorder. This helped contribute to theme of having a unstable character to make the opening thriller less clique and more shocking.  This particular convention of a thriller is there to make the audience feel unsettled themselves. It results in them feeling very disconnected to the character and in turn creates more of a thriller atmosphere through the shocking unexpected things the unstable character does. 

Low key lighting was also used in my own thriller opening. This is a particular element that is present when the character Cameron commits

suicide. This was also influenced form Shutter Island when the character Teddy is in a prison and only has a match as a light source. This ultimately is a successful use of mise-en-scene that contributes in creating a very mysterious atmosphere as the audience are unaware as to whats hiding in the dark. This is popular within thrillers as there main film is to create a film with enigma and mystery. With endless amount of dark corners and backgrounds people are able to experience what its like to be in the unknown and be scared to witness what is going to happen when a character or camera moves into that darkness. With the help of an erie setting low-key light is one of the most popular thriller conventions in the thriller genre.

In addition to this after watching Chernobyl Diaries -A film about the isolated town and tourists visiting it and being stranded there when there car is tampered with- Uses alot of different micro elements that contribute in causing the audience to think deeply about what is going on in those particular surroundings. Mise-en-scene and the location is one of them. The erie abandoned scenery of the isolated town made me think how scary loneliness is, this aim of hostility is what makes people feel threatened while watching a film. People are unable to feel like help is coming there way or that there is any escape for the character which is a very frightening element within thrillers. This can be seen from my own thriller film when harmony is walking alone and looks around. The audience are able to see a POV shot of her in a isolated street in the dark with no help surrounding her. This is a stereotypical code and convention of a thriller and helps to build a more suspenseful atmosphere by having her alone.

We used cinematography to manipulate the audience at the start of our thriller opening. We was determined to add a numerous amount of low angled shots to not make our character seem superior but to interpret the common convention of a thriller which is hidden identity. I was convinced that this would have much more of an impact on the audience as they finally realise that the character Cameron is just a sad looking boy with empty emotions willing to take his own life. The zooming out technique from Cameron's face really exaggerates the intense atmosphere and sad truth of suicide which is something I have learnt thriller really like to display. A very truthful, disturbing atmosphere that leaved the audience completely shocked. 

Sound is also a major micro element that can support this lexical set of fear and anticipation. In our own thriller film at the part were Cameron is positioned over his mother, attacking her. The audience are able to witness a very erie effect through the sound of heavy breathing. I added this into my thriller opening as it suggested that not only was Cameron the antagonist but he displayed human qualities. He is panicking and his own actions which remains a very scary quality for murderers as they are able to feel emotions but not initially stop the killing. This contrasts to someone that is purely evil and feels nothing, as a regular close family member would never be suspected as a murderer and that's what make my thriller a whole lot more chilling.

Through watching the film scream I learnt that very simple action scenes of stabbing sequences can add to the atmosphere of a conventional thriller. Nothing is particularly scary or frightening about the film scream although it does have the element of shock when the killer jumps out with such a personal object, that needs close physical contact to be effective. I used this is my own thriller opening when Cameron kills his mother. We decided a knife would be the best weapon to use and it concludes how well we are able to manipulate and control the death scene. This is a very popular element in a thriller film as it builds a more erie suspenseful atmosphere by having a weapon such as a knife instead of a gun which acts as a more personal barrier between antagonist and victim. In my thriller film I used the weapon of the knife at the dinner scene. This made the death of the mother much more frightening and unexpected as the knife used to eat with is then used to murder with. This sort of transition is common within thrillers as they continue to have unexpected twists and plots that throw the audience off track and shock them further. Which is what my aim was in my own thriller opening.

Final Group Thriller - Miss Georgiou

Disturbia final cut

West hatch high school 16807

Molly Emmerson 9327

I worked alongside with

Jake Butler 9313

Claire Golightly 9334

Rough Cut - Miss Georgiou

Rough Cut

Introduction

Now that we have completed a rough cut of our thriller opening it is necessary that we take action in to getting feedback to how we can make improvements. Audience feedback is always important when making anything as they have a very big impact on how you are able to make improvements. We are able to see where we have made mistakes or could change things slightly to make it more appealing to our audience. In our own group we have been oblivious to how we could make certain improvements and having an outsiders perspective broadens our knowledge.

We receive our audience feedback from posting our rough cut on youtube and gaining comments from various people. I have also shown my rough cut to the whole of my media class getting positive and negative comments from my teachers and fellow students. I where also able to look back on our questionnaires and use them to incorporate a new range of questions to ask friends and family what they thought of my thriller opening. I asked my sister Emily Emmerson, 15 years of age a number of questions one of them was. 

Would you carry on watching this if it was a feature length film?

She replied with: Yes because the story seems interesting and i want to know more about the character Cameron and what happens to Harmony at the end.

This shows me that we have been successful with connecting to our target audience which was aimed at people ages 15 and above.

Feedback

Here we see two opinions taken from our thriller opening on you tube. Kerry Boyne has stated that she thinks the narrative is successful as she believes it engages the audience this is something we planed to achieve while planning and making our thriller opening as we included a variety of characters that each had a specific role within our thriller. A constructive comment she also gave us was that we should add more low-key lighting which is something I agree on as when the character Cameron is committing suicide the lighting should be darker and gloomy to build suspense for the audience. 

Here we are able to see two comments, one from Amy-Michaela Sowerby and another from Malu Pillai. Amy mentions that we have used a good amount of variation in our shots. She has mentioned adding a sound effect when Cameron's character appears behind Harmony at the end of our thriller opening. I agree that this would shock the audience even more by adding a high-pitched noise that could even scare the audience a little, making them feel a lot of adrenaline. Malu also like the idea of our narrative which indicates to us that using a mentally unstable character was a successful choice to make. She also states that darker filters should be used which I agree with as I think it will help us when creating a very suspenseful atmosphere.

Bettie states that the editing is well presented in our thriller. The smooth crossover transition we used in our thriller has been successful in achieving an overall smooth opening thriller that flows well. She also suggests that we should make the credits longer in our film as they are hard to see which I agree with. Its important for an audience to be able to see who is in our film and who is directing it etc etc. This is why we should change our opening credits to make them longer and easier to read.

Conclusion

Overall our thriller opening seems to have been rather successful at intriguing our audience and making them shocked and full of suspense at some points. Although we now have realised that there are a number of things we can improve on and this can be how we make even better improvements on our thriller opening by making the atmosphere overall alot more shocking and thrilling

Risk Assesment - Miss Georgiou

Risk Assessment

Introduction

Risk assessments are lists of hazards that could be present when filming and taking part in any activities to do with finishing our film successfully and safely 

Risk assessments are important as they are able to separately demonstrate what kind of things we need to be extra careful with and wary of. When using dangerous iconography and weapons within our scene we need to ensure that we are using these responsibly and carefully not putting anyone in harms way. 

This helps with filming as it provides a way to state and think about all the dangers we could encounter. For starters we will need to be careful when filming in busy local areas. People are not used to delays and will not usually care about getting in the way and ruining a shot. In addition to this when walking into roads we need to make sure that everyone is vigilant and knows that there is no danger between us and incoming vehicles on the road. 

Conclusion

Overall the main focus that we have on keeping everyone safe is to be very observant and know our surroundings. We need to make sure we are safe and secure when trying to film our opening thriller sequence. Not only do we need to focus on everyone's safety but we need to be aware of what in our shot. We need to make sure that no one is visible in our shot that shouldn't be there and we need to make sure that our locations look realistic and believable. Overall we need to keep an eye out for little things that could really ruin a shot.

Production Roles - Miss Miller

Production Roles

Introduction 

When making or creating an opening sequence there are a lot of different tasks and jobs that need to be handled most of these jobs contain a lot of work. This means that most of these roles needs to be dealt with separately and this is why we have tried to evenly give each person in our group a good amount of work that needs to be done.

Producer (Production Name)

Our producer is GoButson. This company was created by us and the idea came form Jake Butler to merge all our last names together to presented our opening sequence in a much more personal way.

Directors

We decided that the best people to have the role as the Directors was myself and Claire as it was our individual ideas that where very similar and would work well together. This meant that we where both very ambitious to come up with a group narrative that displayed some sort of disturbed character. We knew exactly how we wanted this character to be portrayed and we needed the directors to have a lot of creative ideas to be able to successfully create this type of opening sequence. We wanted people from our group that made an effect into the work to be the directors. This meant that it required leadership skills.

Actors

Our main character Cameron, is played by Morgan Brown. We choose Morgan as we felt like he was able to appear as a good antagonist with streaks of innocence. Morgans family has always taken an interest into acting and he always enjoyed it at school and succeeded in GCSE. The same goes to the character of Grace (the mother). This character is played by Grace Wingrove. She informed as that she took GCSE drama and finished the year with an A. Finally the character of Harmoney is played by myself. We decided I would be a good fit with this character as I always always available to film and help out behind the scenes when off screen.

Director of Photography

We decided that Claire would be a very good fit into having responsibility with shooting the scenes. She has always taken an interest into photography and has had experience with shooting footage at family events such as her cousins wedding. She was also the one that filmed the preliminary task and proved to the rest of the group that she had the ability to film a numourus amount of creative and intriguing shots.

Music Producers

We decided to share the role of the music producers as we all have different tastes. Jakes prefers Rap. Claire like calming music such as acoustics. I prefer Indie and Alternative. After I showed them the song 'Tip Toe Through The Tulips'  we all agreed that this was a suitable paralell sound to be demonstrated in our thriller.

Screenplay Writer

We deicided that the person who fitted the role for screenplay writer was in fact Jake. He has a lot of skill when writing due to the fact he is taking english language at A-level. This means he must be the most suitable for the role and would be able to handle this job well enough.

MES co-coordinators 

Jake did gcse media, aswell as myself which meant we had a wider knowledge on what is suited to the thriller genre through the presentation of the MES conventions. He seemed to know the best type of lighting and probs to use that resembled the MES thriller conventions very well.

Editor

I took on the role as the editor as the group knew I had experience at GCSE. This meant that I would know how to use the editing software and get the hang of it quickly. I was able to know what type of editing was suitable to a thriller. This is because in my GCSE media coursework I had to produce an opening to a thriller similar to the task we have now.

Jake

Jake's roles where to take on the role of the MES co-ordinator and The screenplay writer. He also had a little part of playing Cameron's voice overs in our opening thriller. Jake was very good at voicing his opinions and getting across his ideas. This enabled me and Clarie to set up scenes and make sure the props and lighting was correct. If Jake was to improve on his role he should participate more in actually doing the work and take more of an interest within his roles.

Claire

Claire took on the roles of camera man and one of the directors. She was very successful at using creative shots and she used the equipment very well. She was able to always create a steady shot. As a director she was very good at coming up with locations and her input was always needed and helpful to all of the group. If she was to do something different within her role it would be to challenge the camera even more by experimenting with unusual shots.

Molly

I took on the role of editor and shared the role of director with Claire. I really enjoyed editing and tried to make the transition as smooth as possible. I liked watching back on footage with Claire and deciding whether it was suitable and what would've been done to improve it. I decided that if I was to do anything different I would take more time on the editing and concentrate on making sure it was a pristine as possible.

Conclusion

Overall filming was successful and everyone was suited to there role. Although an improvement on having certain roles would be to assign Jake with a more technical role such as director or camera man. This may have pushed him and all of use to be more organised and have everyone make an equal effort not just some of the group.

Opening Scene Narrative - Miss Miller

Opening Scene Narrative

Introduction

Our very first frame consists of a long shot. The location is the school corridor and the frame shows an example of the character Cameron pulling along the chair and facing his death. The sound will be very simple during this scene as the focus is on the squeaking sound of the chair. The scene continues onto a median shot the sounds and frame remains similar focusing on just building the tension. The scene then portrays Cameron opening the door to the scene with the stair case. This shot is median and all you hear now is the door creaking slowly, this flows into a close up of the door and shuts firmly to show how trapped Cameron is. The scene then fades to black and is reunited with a close up of him tying the rope around the metal staircase. The location remains very dusty and damp looking and the use of iconography is present here as the chair and scarf (used as rope) is seen. As the character Cameron steps onto the chair Erie sounds begin to be heard non-dieageticlly towards the audience. A close up of Cameron's lifeless face is then presented. We use makeup under his eyes to show the exhaustion. His facial expressions remain to appear as if he has given up. The cinematography then begins to change as we zoom out into a medium shot. The editing is very slow in this scene as we plan to use slow motion to prolong his death, creating tension. The final frame to this scene is used with a median shot. You see his legs continuously struggling. The iconography remains the same and all we see is the chair being kicked over. The sound track remains gloomy to create the effect and realisation that his life is coming to an end. The positioning of the character Cameron remains very unsettled as we see his struggle after committing suicide. The editing then comes in from a big fade/flash transition to show we have actually gone back in time to where Cameron's struggles began. 

The first frame suggests that Cameron had a 'normal' family life. The sounds of eating is present and the long shot is used to show the positioning of the characters which is Mother and son placed awkwardly at different ends of the table. The iconography in this scene is the cutlery and 'food' that is left out for them to eat. The constant sound of eating and knives against the plate is heard and the lighting remains quiet natural considering this is the evening. The following scene is a point of view shot form Cameron's view he is looking at his mother she begins to nag him, talking about a doctors appointment. Her facial expression remains concerned and the only diagetic sound we hear is the mother raising her voice about how she believes Cameron has behaved. A close up of Cameron stabbing his knife into the his toast is used here. We see the anger in the way he uses this iconography which builds up the audiences perspective of what type of character Cameron is. We then see Cameron's whole body language. His position remains very stiff and his facial expression remains very tense. The lighting is now darker as the scenes atmosphere fades. The sound of his mothers dialogue is faded as Cameron's concentrations turns dark. The next scene shows an extreme close up of Cameron's dark eyes. Erie sounds begin to take place as we see the frustration in his facial expression. A sudden fade is then brought in which lasts roughly 3 seconds. Cameron shuts his eyes. After a flash transition the frame is led from Cameron's point of view and the use of iconography is used and repetition is used showing of the knife is continued. The short violent scene are brought to the audiences attention in quick editing. The character Grace is shown being stabbed and falls off her chair why she then looks confused and dazed after being wounded. Cameron then remains in power as we see him struggle to maintain purity as he murders his mother. We hear nothing but the soundtrack being played, which is a cover of Tiny Tim's - Tip Toe Through The Tulips. This parallel sound is played as Grace struggles to get her son off of her. Although this diabetic sound is muffled, We are able to here Cameron's muffled breathing. The lighting is still dark at this point to show that his 'dark' side is present. 

The title 'Disturbia' Is the portrayed on the screen while we continuously here the soundtrack Tip Toe Through The Tulips.

The final scene is then demonstrated.With a medium shot that shows Harmony walking. We are able to see a deserted looking street and bush to the right. The following shot remains quiet low and only shows half of her body. Her phone then begins to ring and a median shot it used to present her answering the phone. When the phone remains fuzzy and threatening she panics and a POV shot is shown as she frantically looks around to see if anyone is watching. Cameron replies with 'Cameron's Not Here Anymore' - As Harmony walks off we see her in a black coat. She wears all black to annotate that danger is near for her. We got Cameron to remain in a suit almost to show the contrast in characters. When his innocent he wears white. When he is in black he is evil and the fact he is in a suit at the end shows that this is only the beginning for Cameron. His 'protagonist side' wants to trick the audience into thinking his in charge.

Conclusion
If this was an entire film the storyline would continue to show how Cameron's innocent side deals with the guilt which leads him to his suicide and how does the film actually end does Cameron really die. The fact that Cameron appears to kill himself at the start shows how our thriller opening differ to stereotypical thrillers. In conclusion to our opening scene narrative we have successful attempted to include all the micro-elements that need to be presented in a conventional thriller opening.

Filming Schedule - Miss Georgiou

Filming Schedule

Introduction

A filming schedule is something that allows us to be more organised with what we are doing. It causes us to communicate with each other and the actors. Overall we are able to discuss which lessons and days after school we are free to all film. We are able to know the date and time of which we will be meeting and taking part in the participation of our opening film. In addition to this our frame looks more organised as we are able to see what iconography and equipment is needed and who is going to actually be needed in this particular scene.

This helped us a lot with planning our opening sequence. We was able to have an overview of what was needed in each scene. Having a filming schedule made us feel a lot more secure with what we where producing as the scenes that where created in our minds come to life on paper.

Although our filming schedule was made to help us become more organised and take a more realistic approach into filming our opening sequence. We still had to consider all the possibilities that it may not go exactly to plan. We actually changed the location of the bus stop scene that was filmed on the 3rd of December due to the fact that it was an awkward place for us to get to and none of us could make it within a reasonable time sequence. The location was changed to a street outside our school which made it accessible to the actors and production team.

Another part of the filming schedule that we wanted to follow but didn't always stick to was the length of the shots. This was due to a number of reasons, such as actors. In some scenes they would laugh or get distracted and this created a divergent in how long the scenes/shots had to be this was because of the effect that we needed to create without anyone smiling or laughing in the shots. This resulted in a number of the shots being cut down and very short. 

Our third most significant problem that occurred when following the filming schedule was the fact that we had to re shoot a part of the opening scene. When Cameron's character drags the chair. This is because the scene was filmed in the school and some posters where seen in the background this was filmed the week after we thought we had finished all our filming completely but as we went to edit it. We realised that the part of the scene that needed to be changed didn't look right. 

Conclusion

Overall the filming schedule is used to organise and keep up with the different scenes and times for filming. If we wern't able to organise the different days and times of filming then we would struggle to keep up with the work. In addition to this we are able to see what changed we made and what was successful when planing our filming schedule we where able to notice the differences that have occurred when starting to plan our thriller sequence and finishing our thriller opening.

Group Storyboard - Miss Miller

Group Storyboard

 Introduction

This project is done in groups which means it is crucial for it to work properly. It needs to be able have a number of different opinions and ideas added to it, without it being a solo project. To do this we needed to combine our individual storyboards to eventually create something that would equally have a share of ideas into it.

We had to go through each storyboard and individually assess each one of them. We was able to pull out successful features from each one and successfully add different perspectives of what we want our final opening sequence to look like. 

The first ever shot, demonstrated in frame 1 was taking from Claire's original storyboard we all agreed that having him walk towards the camera prolonged the scene and the walking which built up tension and fore-shadowed his death. This use of cinematography was a long shot which means we are able to see the long corridor that is also represented in the scene and adds to the suspense of the prolonged walk. In addition to this we see him dragging the long rope and chair which was iconography taken from all of the groups storyboard as we all agreed these where the best props to use and the audience may begin to question where he is actually heading, resulting in them feeling anxious towards for the character Cameron his body language here also indicates that his giving up so the audience know wherever he is heading he is not going to be safe and enjoying  it.

In the next scene we see a combination of both mine and Claire's idea of how to build enigma before he jumps. In Claire's scene she focused on using a close up of his face whereas in mine, I have continued to use a median shot which also began to pan out. The aim we had was to combine our frames together and create a zooming out shot that started focused on his facial expressions then zoomed out to his body, for the audience to see the rope wrapped around his neck. This overall is a much more effective use of cinematography as we decided it focuses on the two most important things. His facial expressions and his body language, with the iconography present. This is conventional to a thriller as the audience are able to see the two most important things in this scene his facial expressions and body language as well as the iconography used which is the rope. Leading the audience into knowing what he is about to do. This idea was taken from Shutter Island as in my own storyboard I said about how close ups and facial expressions are crucial when trying to connect the audience to our characters.

Above we are able to see the start of an idea from Claire and myself. We where able to figure out a way to add a range of our different shot techniques but still save time and not spend too long on separate frames. We decided to add a 'montage-like' type of footage. We decided to have a numerous amount of angles portraying the mothers death but then turn it into a very fast scene with a lot of impact. The transitions will be almost like a flash racing across the screen and each frame will last about 3 seconds. We also thought it may be a good idea to piece together a range of blackouts during the 'montage' to create even more suspense within the scene. After the mothers death we then go on to introduce the title. This is when Jake agreed that this was a good idea to play our soundtrack - Tip Toe Through The Tulips.

The final shot was taken from my own storyboard in frame 24 we decided to leave it on a cliffhanger and decided this was the best way to do it. The way that the character Cameron lingers in the background, but the focus is not on him will cause uncertainty towards the audience. The audience will question his body language and facial expressions as they will remain unclear. The fact that the only facial expression to be seen will be Harmony's will remain very frightening for the audience to watch as they may be unsure as to what is going to happen to her as a character. The build up to this shot it complimented by a range of different panicking frames. In frames 20, 21, 22 and 23 They all remain to focus on different things such as her feet moving uncomfortably and the audience being able to see her panicking through frame 23. All these techniques where chosen by all of us as a group and we have worked together to achieve a number of shots that imply that the character Harmony is weak and vulnerable and appears to be being 'watched'. 

Conclusion

We had to compromise on a number of things through each stage of completing our plan. When we first thought of our group narrative we had a range of ideas and settings that we thought we could use. Initially we wanted a very dark, dirty room to be used for the suicide and wanted to use Claire's cellar. Unfortunately this wasn't possible due to the fact that the space was to small to film and there was to many of us to all contribute into making this scene as perfect as possible in such a small space. So while drawing and creating our storyboard we evidently came up with the idea of having to use a staircase on the school premises. Doing this meant that the lighting and atmosphere may not be as we planned but in editing we are going to add filters that will hopefully create more erie lighting. If I where able to change any elements of our storyboard it would be to maybe prolong the beginning. Maybe add more shots and longer time frames to prolong the suicide even more. This would build the overall feel of the opening sequence and contribute in creating a successful thriller opening.

Individual Storyboard - Miss Miller

Individual Storyboard

Introduction

A story board is something used to show the type of scene that you are imagining in your mind come to life. They are often presented as rough sketches and have little detail with them to show what type of camera angle your using and etc. It can be a great way of deciding how you plan your footage to look and if it requires any addition scenes/shots that you may not have thought about before.

Cinematography
I have manged to storyboard 20 different frames for my opening sequence. The first 7 being the suicide scene and from 8-13 is the murder scene. Frame 14 is the title and 15-20 remain to be the bus stop scene with the telephone conversation to Cameron. Most of the shots I have decided to add in my storyboard are conventional to a thriller, in frame 6 we see the camera close up on Cameron's face. He appears very weak and vulnerable, We decided to go with a close up of Cameron to let the audience see how emotionless and weak he appears. After seeing him portrayed this way they may begin to build a relationship of guilt and sorrow with Cameron as they audience are being to to see Cameron's perspective on the world which isn't a very appealing one. I got the idea for this shot to portray vulnerability from films such as Shutter Island. Leonardo DiCaprio is being portrayed as a very disturbed character and often by just looking at his sad, confused face made me feel sympathy towards that character which is what I wanted to achieve in my own thriller opening. The camera begins zooming out gently to eventually witness him jumping off the chair. This creates anticipation within the scene as it slows down the speed of the shot by slowly zooming out. In frame 12 the shot I have used is a point of view shot. This is when the mother initially gets stabbed. The use of this shot will create a very tense atmosphere as it means that the audience get a taster of what its like to be in Cameron's shoes. What does it feels like to see through the eyes of a murderer? This almost implies the guilt the audience will feel as they will experience first hand the facial expressions of the dying, helpless mother. Another shot that stands out is shot 19. This shot is a panning/POV shot and I decided to add this to our opening sequence to create a sense of panic within the scene. The fact that the camera is turning frantically from Harmony's point of view shows how she feels frightened. She may be wondering where Cameron is and what his capable off.

Mise-en-scene
The lighting will also be low-key which will be another convention of a thriller and react well with the scene of the suicide. I have decided to use this type of lighting to put all concentration on Cameron as I plan to have him stranded in the darkness. This leaves clues to the audience as to why he is committing suicide. It leaves ideas that he has had a very bad childhood and has maybe experienced challenging things in his life which contribute to the way he feels know. This lighting remains to fit the codes and conventions of a thriller as it portrays how Cameron feels swallowed up by the darkness. Overall this is what makes the atmosphere so thrilling and erie. In the last four frames we are able to see my vision of what I intend the ending of my opening sequence to be. I plan to make a very panicked ending due to the fact if this was a whole movie, the audience would want to continue and watch more. This is why I have deliberately caused the ending of the scene to be a cliffhanger with the positioning of the character Cameron standing in the background. This is conventional to a thriller as it produces a very scary atmosphere as we are able to see Cameron coming after the character Harmony.

Sound
I plan to have the song 'Tip toe through the tulips' in the frames 14, 15 and 16. Where I have committed music in the sound box this is the music I wish to have. This type of music originally from Tiny Tim remains to be very erie in the way it sounds so child-like. This type of music is music that sends chills down the audiences spin as they watch the thriller opening as they have no clue what to expect next as they sounds are so unreliable. In addition to this the song used is conventional to a thriller because of how it make the audience feel. It makes them feel very uncomfortable due to its child-like qualities. The fact that the song is so high-pitched may remind them of some sort of children's rhyme which can disturb them due to the face that children are associated with innocence and there is no innocence or goodness to be presented in this part of the film as it is just after Cameron's mother is murdered. Finally I got the idea to use this song from the thriller/horror Insidious. This music really stood out to me after watching the film as it contributed into making me feel uncomfortable which is how I want the audience to feel when watching my own thriller opening.

Conclusion

I think my storyboard is successful because of the different camera frames used and techniques used within the story if i was to improve my work i would try and include more of a range of unusual techniques. I would add more frames to try and create more temp on the faster scenes. This is something I aim to achieve in my group/final storyboard.

Planning Opening Credits - Miss Georgiou

Opening Credits

Introduction

The purpose of opening credits is to introduce your film title and actors names. You may also add everyone that is going to be involved in making your opening sequence. For example the directer may be another name that appears on the opening sequence to show

his significance within the film.

The opening to Seven has many aspects that remain to be conventional to a thriller. The font of the writing is very messy almost like handwriting. This shows that it would've been rushed and written in panic like a unstable character would do. The sparks of red really show how there could be elements of death and danger within the film. The white writing and black background are very conventional to the thriller genre as they represent that the characters involved in this film could be evil and innocent. Meaning this film follows the character roles of the antagonist and protagonist. The character seems very twisted and unstable, this is shown through the very disturbing images that are portrayed throughout the credits, for example the man cutting his skin with a blade other repetition of using the scissors and showing him cutting up various things. In addition to this the images can almost be presented as someone planning a murder, there are pictures of people involved and a range of different tools being shown. All convincing the audience that the use of iconography is going to be present in this thriller, often conventional weapons such as knifes and blades. There is low-key lighting through-out all of the film, which is another typical convention of a thriller as it heightens the shadowy effect in the scene and concentrates on only certain aspects of the scene, making the scenery appear as if something is hiding in the shadows. The sound effects used in this continue to be very erie. The noises here often sound like a record player being scratch. Which resemble to a scream. This is a common convention of a thriller as the high pitched noises in these opening credits are similar to someone in distress, building tensions within the atmosphere. The production name comes first in this opening sequence followed by the directors name and the main characters. Often most important first such as Brad Pitt, which is something we will take in to consideration when rearranging our own opening credits.

My opening title

 

I have used the red outline of the writing to demonstrate the danger and death within the scene, The colour red is a typical connotation of the danger and murder that's to come in our opening sequence. The words come in muddled and confusing to show the different sides of mental behaviour in our opening sequence, for example Cameron's spilt personality, he remains to appear very disorientated and in his own little world which is why I have chosen the letters to come into shot this way.This part of the opening credits remains a white colour and the spaces between the letter are fairly spaced apart this is to portray the suspenseful atmosphere within the opening sequence all the characters in our opening sequence remain very isolated from each other although they are all family/friends. There relationship is not what you would expect from a 'normal' family bond. They remain very distant from each other, even though they believe they are close and the mother continues to question Cameron about his life, meaning she knows little about it herself. The words then fade out and turn to black and the scene continues. The use of this soft fade supports the narratives idea of the main character Cameron losing his own identity. Eventually the boys own identity is fading away and being overthrown by the dark side of him, just like the font in this opening

credit.

Claire's Opening Credits

Claires opening credits appear to be very bold. There is a dimmed red colour within the letters and the outline of the letter are white against a black background. The red that she has added contributes to the convention of a thriller and is successful as it works

 to represent the death and danger within our thriller opening. It could possibly suggest a brutal murder that may take place in the film, this is due to the connotation of the red meaning blood, which causes the audience to become fearful of whats to come. The white and black colours contrast against each other as they display how innocent people could be at war with the antagonists in the opening sequence. This may resemble Cameron's mental state. battling with innocence and evil. She has been very successful at following the theme of conventions. Her colour schemes are very good when trying to represent the narrative within our opening sequence using black and white as contrasts with a slight hint of red. One weakness of her opening credits would be that they remain very structured and we are trying to present a very disturbed opening thriller sequence. 

Jake's Opening Credits

His font is very bold and remains thick and white. The colours work well together as white and black can represent the good vs evil that our character Cameron has to battle within himself everyday. The font used here is more likely to be suited more to the adventure or fantasy genre as it remains bold and cartoon-like, which is one weakness of this font. It remains to look like it should appear somewhere more suited for child. Something with adventures and fantasy as this font often reminds me of a cloud like scenery. Jake's credits also hadn't have a fade in and fade out. Which meant the opening title credits would just appear very rapid onto the screen, again not following the storyline of someone who is mentally ill, as the font and fades remain too structured.

Conclusion

Overall as a group we decided to use my own opening credit title as we all agreed that it was the most convention to our thriller opening and thrillers in general. This is because of the way the fade in was very scattered and appeared jumbled up. In addition to this our opening credits will appear with the most relevant and important actors first. This will be Morgan Brown (Cameron), Grace Wingrove (Grace/Mother) and Molly Emmerson (Harmony). This will then be followed by the director and other actors names and part of the production team. The title will be shown around halfway through the opening sequence with the words 'Disturbia'.