This is our Rough Cut. It took us one week to film and then two days to edit. The first problems we encountered were finding the perfect time when all of us were possible to film together. This is why as a director, I had decided to hire a friend to help us with some of the needed roles.
Another problem that we had were the actors themselves. While the male characters were easy to find and hire, the female candidates were although beautiful, too shy to be filmed. However in the last moment, my cousin had volunteered to be the female character, while my sister was needed for one scene where she was the killer.
Props were easy to find as my house was littered with useful objects that we could use in the production of the movie. For example, the use of a bow full of chili peppers was so that there would be more props used in the shot rather than a lot of space and two candles. Also There were small issues with the lighting and weather. For example, many of the rooms had normal lighting but no lamps, while the weather was sometimes rainy, so production was either cancelled or severely delayed. Fortunately we did all of the scenes where inside filming was needed.
Nevertheless, we produced a sufficient rough cut with many of the techniques and sound effects that will be used. The presentation that was created by Danniella was greatly detailed, however our representation with it was a tad unwell prepared.
For our complete cut, we will make sure that all of our crew are together and more camera styles are used as the ones that we used were a bit repetitive. Another thing that we can improve is the use of the needed characters with just one actor per character. In one of the scenes, the main character is represented by one of the other actors as the actor that was in the role of the main character was unable on that day.
Planning Cinematography 12-12-13 Vasil Nikolov Cinematography is important in thriller films as it creates an atmosphere for the audience and creates emotion throughout the viewing of the film. For every scenario, we discussed the different camera angles we can use within it. This helps us create a relationship with the audience building tension within the film. Camera angles are also important because they create suspense, shock and surprise for the audience as they might slow down the pace of the film or suddenly change the atmosphere. Planning is required to produce excellent sequences because without planning it is easy for us to go off track and lose sense of what our plan actually is within out thriller. The plan for our cinematography is critical so that it makes our scenes more interesting and effective making and inspiration a reality.
In our group we looked at many different camera angles and analysed whether they would work well in creating shock, surprise and suspense in our thriller. There were a few shots that stood out in creating these things, they were
Close up
Long shot
High angle
Low angle
Point of view
We will use these shots in our opening sequence as we believe they create an emotional atmosphere and engage the audience into our thriller.
We will use the point of view shot in our piece as it engages the audience into the scene. This is because this shot puts the audience in the characters position as they can see what the character is seeing. We will specifically use this shot when the killer is entering the couples house and takes a knife from the draw, the shot makes the audience feel as if they are the killer as they can see what he sees which creates a relationship with the audience as they believe they are in the killers shoes adding suspense as they feel guilty for what the killer is about to do. This shot will also make the audience sympathise with the wife's situation as she is about to get killed and the audience can see it from the killers POV so they feel like they are guilty for whats going to happen. We hope this shot will create shock and surprise for the audience through the fact they don't know who the killer is and that he has taken a knife from the drawer. This would be conventional to a thriller as if it creates suspense and tension for the audience as directors like to make their audiencee feel both of these elements.
Another camera angle we will use is a close up shot. This is because these shots focus on a characters facial expression and body language, this would be good in our thriller as throughout our thriller the characters will be frightened so close ups would show there un settled facial expression in great detail. This will create tension and suspense as the audience will not know what he character has seen but know that it is something to be scared of. We have used this angle when the women opens her bedroom door to the killer standing broad and intimidatingly at the door. This angle is effective as you can make the emotions from the characters create a relationship with the audience, from changing to sympathy and regret, to suspense and dread of what is going to happen next. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the facial expressions focused on are ones used every day which creates a sense of reality in the audience.
We have also used a high angle shot in our opening sequence when the killer is in the loft and looking down on the husband. We have used this as it shows the superiority of the killer and the inferiority of the man who's life may about to end. This creates suspense and tension because the audience are wondering who is looking down on the man and why they are in the attic. This creates a relationship between the audience and the husband as they feel sympathetic for him as they know that he is about to killed and they will feel helpless. We want this angle to make sure the characters are portrayed as vulnerable so that the audience feel sympathy for them making them create a relationship with the characters themselves. This is conventional to the thriller genre as many thriller directors use a high angle to shot to portray the inferiority of a character who is in danger from a murderer.
Using different camera angles will create many different emotions throughout our clip which is just what we want to do. These emotions will get more and more tense as the film progresses until the end of the clip where we leave them in suspense as to what will happen next. I believe that us planning what camera shots to do will help us do this as we can take the positives and negatives for each one and use the ones we think are the best at creating shock, surprise and suspense.this has also helped us with the preparation for the filming as it has broken down all of the elements we need to make out thriller more intensifying and scary and also means we know what to do instead of on filming day thinking about what shot we should use.
Similarly to my Storyboard, our group storyboard resembled my original idea. However, we decided to add bits from their stories in order to increase the 3S as my original story lacked the suspence needed to frighten the audience.
As a group we had a meeting regarding our whole storyboard. We looked and discussed each others personal story boards and took the best parts to include in our own group one. For example we decided to use George`s camera techniques and Danniella's sound techniques. Combining all of these together created a great idea which will be easy to film but will create a lot of suspense, shock and surprise.
In the first four scenes, there will be a short dialogue to introduce to the audience away what they should expect to see. The camera angle that will be used in the start of the film will be an eye level shot, showing the main character driving. The second scene will have an extreme closeup of the phone as his wife (Stacy) will call him and tell him that dinner will be ready in five minutes. Then there will be a reaction shot of how he becomes happier by the sound of his favourite dinner being ready in a hand-full of minutes. There will be slow editing while the conversation is happening in order for the audience to be able to understand what the plan for the evening is. Once the conversation has finished, it will become from slow to quick editing. This way the action can carry on with the original play. The lighting that will be used is going to be low key lighting as night time driving involves darkness. Low key lighting means that the audience can concentrate only on the main character and the phone. From the 4th scene, the action changes from the car to the house. where low key lighting (emmited mainly from house lamps), shows the wife cooking and calling her husband. She will be portrayed as a tired but quite happy woman in an apron cooking dinner.
Scene number 5 sees the world from the eyes of the killer (Gerald but the group always says that he does not have a name). He will enter the house and go to the kitchen, where he will chose a knife and go to the bottom of the stairs that leads to the room of the couple. The killer himself will not be seen until the end of the opening credits as it will create an enigma for the audience. He will be using a torch as the wife would turn off the lighting in the kitchen. Scene 6 would then be a high angle in which the wife would be starting the shower for a bath. The killer would then climb up the stairs while she is going to he room to change clothing. A variety of editing techniques and iconography will be used such as quick editing when the female character is changing and a high angle shot once the killer is knocking on the door.
In the next scene, a eye level shot greets the public with the dressed lady, opening the door that she expected was her husband. however what happenes is that it is the killer. Once she opens the door, the camera becomes a high angle shot, portraying the woman as a feeble victim.
The story continues with the bath starting to overflow, while the husband is entering the house. There will be two camera angles portraying the husband climbing the stairas and entering his room.
He will then find his wife, run downstairs, grab the keys, open the door and see the killer...
These are all of the scenes that are needed to be filmed for our thriller. The layout allows us to see both the visualisation and the technical. This shows us that as a group, we can have an idea and encorporate it fully. As we can see from our storyboards the use of it has enabled us to put our ideas down on paper and see if they would work together in order to finalise these ideas as a group and use for our planning. This story board will be used by our group so we can follow it when filming, so that we can get lots of footage in which we can edit in a short space of time.
If you wish
to create a thriller that will grab the audience from the street and comfort
them into the cinema, then the creator of the mentioned pictures needs inspiration
from different movies in order to perceive ideas that would influence wise
suggestions. I have watched a few thriller films and looked at their cinematography,
sound and the Mise-en-scene in order to receive inspirations.
One of
the films from which I received an inspiration is Kill Bill. More importantly
it is the scene where the blonde woman has stopped in front of the house at an
establishing shot. The message which was imbedded in this scene was that action
is not excluded from a normal neighborhood. This would surprise the audience as
they would relate to having a similar house in a similar neighborhood and cause
them to be surprised. When we held a meeting and both George and Danni agreed
for us to include this shot.
In the
Reservoir dogs’ clip that I analyzed, the director used cheerful music while
the bad guy is cutting the ear of a policeman that passed nearby during the
shooting between mobsters. From this clip I
to suggest the use of cheerful music while a terrible event is happening. This
will create confusion between the relationship of the audience and the villain.
From all of the clips that one has analyzed, I concluded that there should not
be a lot of dialogue. This is why I will not add a great amount of dialogue in
the thriller in order to try and create as much of the 3S' as
possible. In order to keep the identity hidden from the audience, I had taken inspiration from American Psycho, in order to show to the audience that a person in a business suit is not really a
I had taken another
inspiration from Jaws. In particular it was the scene, where a female was
killed by the shark and then being followed by complete silence and ringing of
a bell. I wanted to use the sound tactics in order to make the audience shocked when the attack from our
killer was happening and then once the female was killed, the sound would stop,
ending the scene with candles that one dies while the other flickers (meaning
that the woman has died while the life of the husband is unknown. This creates
an enigma).
Another inspiration
which I received was from Harry Potter 2. In particular it was the scene where
the students read the message on the walls. This inspired me to add a scene
where the husband runs to the bathroom to wash his face and once he notices the
bloody message, he would then shock himself and run away. The message will not
be seen by the audience until they see how the character rises to see his face
in the mirror.
One of the scenes which
George suggested that we should use was from Shutter Island, where Leonardo Di
Caprio walked through the prison. From that scene we decided to use the very
low key lighting as it created suspense due to the reason that Di Caprio cannot
see what is ahead of him and is wondering whether something will happen to
happen to him. This is because the only light in the corridor is the flame he
is holding in his hand and the light does not light the corridor efficiently.
This creates suspense as both the audience and Di Caprio do not know whether
someone is there and what might happen. This increases the suspense in the
audience as they expect to see or hear a chilling or eerie music or see a ghost
killer.
This is why we would like to use this type of lighting in order to
frighten my audience more easily.
There are other ideas
that were taken as well, however more of the sound effects and cinematography
shots were taken from George and Danni`s.
In Editing styles, the Editors job is to organise the Filmed scenes and arrange each individual shot to combine them into a constant sequence. Every scene has a certain amount of different shots that have been chosen and assembled from the different repeats of the certain scene. Once placed, each shot of the scene can be altered to create a profound effect on the appearance of the film. Therefore editing is important, because it gives a sence of continuity to a film. It also prevents miss-communication between scenes so the audience understands how the story is going along. Editing can be an 'invisible art' because if executed well, the viewers will be so engaged in the film, that they will be unaware of the editors work. For example, the curtain scene in Psuyho, has 150 editing shots.
For our film, we decided to use a number of different editing styles to help surprise, shock and suspence to the film for our audience. Below, One has aded the techniques that will be mainly used.
The first one is called "Eye line match". We decided to use this editing technique as part of our editing in order to show the audience what the killer is going to look at. It also makes the audience see everything from his point of view in order to put the audience in the shoes and thoughts of the killer.
The second one is called "Fast Editing". We decided to use fast editing in our thriller film so it can show a large amount of action in a single scene. By using the fast editing, the audience will be able to determine and separate the killer from the victim. It will also create an enigma of who the stalker is and why he wants to kill her. We also decided to use fast editing to create a chaotic atmosphere which is conventional to the thriller genre.
The other techniques that will be used are:
Slow editing
Straight Cut
Continuity editing
Reaction Shot
Jump Cut
Linking shot
How will your editing styles make your thriller conventional?
Fast editing will make my thriller film conventional because it is at a fast speed. The quicker that pase of the film the increase of anxiety the audience will feel. It is also conventional because it enables us to introduce the stalker without showing his identity. This create an enigma and everything thriller film starts of with an unanswered question.
The eye line match is conventional because it makes the audience see the victim through the stalkers point of view. It allows them to build a relationship with the character which makes the audience empathise for the victim.
The dissolve cut is conventional to the thriller genre as it reveals what happened to the victim and answers how she got in that predicament in the first place. A dissolve cut allows the audience to see the disorientaiton and confusion the victim is expreience as if it is answering the audiences question of what happened.
Our Thriller movie is called "The Bloody Suit". Originally I had decided to start the scene with a close shot of a male character who is driving to his house in order to celebrate his anniversary. There will be no music as there is no need. Then, the film starts with his car passing by (Volkswagen Passat B5.5 2005 2.0 Petrol). The camera would then move quickly towards the Man (Dave), driving. Then the camera would change to His wife would be at home, cooking dinner. He would end the conversation, by saying that he will join her for dinner in 10 min. Then the camera would change from him, towards the house, which will be lighted (The scene arrives from Kill Bill when the bride goes to fight with the other woman). However there will be absolutely no sound (not even from the car).
Then the character would start looking around the entire house for his wife (However he does not find her). Suddenly, his phone would ring and he would look at the phone`s screen, seeing that the number is unknown. During his call with the person, there would be on screen music (It would arrive from he radio in the kitchen. The music itself would be cheerful, even though the conversation becomes scarier by the second. This idea derives from reservoir dogs), so the audience gets used to the scene and gets confused why there is cheerful music, while the conversation is getting more and more scary. At some points, the music would be overheard by the heartbeat from the main character.
A jump shot, followed by a low camera angle should portray Dave, rushing upstairs to find his wife. He hears the shower (Diagetic, off-screen) so he believes that she is having one. Another jump cut should follow with a handheld camera and in the POV option from inside a wardrobe. That would be Gerald (IF not remembering, please check my character representation post). The camera would then change to a high angled shot, which portrays Dave opening his wardrobe (Gerald is in Stacy`s wardrobe) and catching the well dressed and cold corpse of his wife.
The camera then changes into a panning low angle camera, portraying Dave running into the bathroom and cleaning his face in the washing basin. It would be immediately followed by an extreme close up on the mirror on which it is written "You are next". Immediately a reaction shot will be portrayed with Dave looking at the mirror and deciding to abandon the house and call the police. During this a diagetic sound of a heartbeat will be heard as he will run into the next camera shot.
A low angle shot from the bottom of the stairs will be portraying Dave running down the stairs to the door. During it, the heartbeat will still be heard once again. After that a level shot portraying the dooor, will display Dave`s hand opening it and Gerald entering with a sharp knife. EXTRA INFORMATION:
In the first 4 frames we did we used many different editing styles and iconography to try and create an everyday atmosphere to also create suspense. We used a car as many people own a car and use it on a daily basis which, like i said, makes them relate to the relevance of the scene. We also used a cell phone, this again is something that people in everyday life use. And again this puts the audience into the characters shoes and engages them which we can then use to scare them more. In the fifth frame we introduced the killer. In this frame we hid the identity of the killer. We did this by using a POV shot so that we can see from his point of view which also allows the audience to put themselves in their shoes. We did this by using a mask and filming the scenes through the wholes on the mask which gives it that POV effect. In the sixth, seventh and eighth frame we introduced the wife. We did this by using things which are relative to an everyday situation, like a bath and getting changed. This creates a relationship between the audience and the wife. We can then tear apart the relationship created by killing her off. In frame 9, 10 and 11 we used two candles to create a sad an eerie atmosphere. We did this by using them to portray the husband and wife and to create tension for the audience by blowing one out to show the wife is dead. We did this instead of showing the wife being dead as it creates suspense before hand as the audience may not know if she was dead. This also creates a relationship between the audience and the husband as they empathise with the fact his wife just died and he is oblivious to the situation which also creates suspense to whether the male character is going to die. In frames thirteen, fourteen, fifteen and sixteen we started to introduce the male character properly. In these frames we showed how oblivious he is to the fact there is a killer in his house. We did this by showing his facial expressions clearly and showing him coming home from work just like normal and acting like nothings happened, which he thinks. His facial expressions start to change when he realises his wife is nowhere to be seen although he had just rang her and she was at home. To show how his facial expressions we used close ups on his face throughout to make it clear to the audience on his situation as well as to create suspense on whether he finds out or whether he gets killed.
OpeningCredits are important, as they are there to show the people
who helped int the production and were acting. This way, they would recieve
recognition and gives them a good presentation for future jobs. This allowes
the audience to research these people if they have been inspired by them and
wish to know more about other productions they have done. Opening credits are
usually shown as text. Some opening credits are with animation while others are
with effects. I will use the following factors (Colour, style, convection and
order of appereance) in order to aid myself analyzing both the film Se7en and
the film "The shining"
Se7en is a very famous thriller from 1997. According to
wikipedia`s list of top box office films it recieves 1st place in the top 20
thrillers. The colour scheme that was used, was based on a grey scale
with an occasional red colour contrasting it. This way it pulled the attention
of the audience closer to focus on the red staines of the opening credits. The
scheme of colours used within these opening credits conveyed a grim
theme. An example would be the handwritten and sharp, which would suggest
that the writer of these letters is angry. In result this indicates that the
thriller makes the audience recognise his feelings.Also the credits
were shaky in order for them to be unsteady and create suspence in the audience
about what is about to happen. This would make them believe that the
writer feels unstable and would make them feel uncomfortable due to not knowing
his actions.
the
consistent use of flashing and the absence of the person`s face, creates a
sense of enigma gor the audience. This makes them get a feeling that the film
is going to be a thriller and that there will be a mystery person and a plots
he has tought of. Underneath the credits, items such as scissors represent the
convention of a thriller as they are conventional props. Also, the eerie music
suggests the use of strong conventions for a thriller included in the opening
credits.
I should warn that the next part that is analyzed is going to
be mixed with my ideas for our film`s opening credits.
The production company is the first thing to show up in the
opening credits. The reason for doing this is probably to promote the filming
company, which recieved the seal of aproval for the filming. Our production
company has the first initial in our forenames. We believe that it was a good
idea as the company sounds original and boosts our confedence.
After that it was the director of the film. He is equally important as he is
supposed to bring to life the ideas of the producers of the film. As I was
chosen to be the director, George added an entire slide in our credits to show
that I was the director of the opening credits. I believe that it was just
after the production name of our filming company.
Actors are equally important for tthe movie. They represent each character in a
book so the director has to be very good at choosing the actors for the film as
each person imagines the certain character differently. This is why in our
film, the killer actually looks dimented, so the audience can fulfill their
stereotypical beliefs regarding the killer.
The title of the film is called
"The bloody suit". The reason for being called like that is because
the film is about a solicitor, trying to run away from the person he is not
defending, In Seven, the actors had a different challenge, however they did
have a scenario in which the main character is threatened and they may die.
This is very convectional to a thriller movie as many films of the same genre
use the narrative theory.
Camera director was the next role to show up in the opening credits of the
film. The camera director is the person who is in charge of monitoring and
controling the flow and way the camers wotked. In our film George was assigned
as the main Camera director, however I recruited Freddie as well becaius George
could not do on all days.
Following this section, the film showed the music, costumes,
editors, production, camera operators, co-producer, producer and writing
director.
Analysis of thriller opening credits by choice: THE SHINING
Compared to Seven, The shining starts with a very calm view of the
woods and then accompanied by eerie music. Compared to the Seven opening
credits, The Shining uses a different type of credits. While Seven has it`s
credits in the four cornaers of the picture (each being in a different place),
The Shining, has it`s credits flowing from the top to the bottom.
Unlike Seven, the opening
credits of this film are much more simplisitic and they create much less
tension than seven. The font does not aid in creating suspension as it is in a
VW beetle blue which gives a connotation of calmnes or the sea. THe credits are
also bolded compared to Sevens` implying that they are imortant and that they
must be read.
When we discussed the font for
the film, we decided to use a mixture of both. Bolded ro give importance and
then in different places and slightly blurred so the audience would think that
they were done in a rush.
The reason why many of the production roles are given to certain people is in order to relieve the stress from the director and also to decrease the amount of time needed for one person to complete. In film production, there are several roles which are given to the director`staff. Each of us recieved a position depending on the personal skills. For example, I recieved the roles of director and Producer. George was appointed as the director of photography, editor and sound technician. And Danni was given the Mise-en-Scene Coordinator.
The First role is called the Film Director. His task is to direct and give the certain roles to the appropriate people in order the film to be classed as a successful film. His role is to visualise the script for the audience. Because my group chose to use my story (And tweak it for a greater percent of tension), I was chosen to be the director as the original story line was mine and that I had the appropriate spectacles. As a director, I will have to aid the editors and operators of the cameras. According to some of my colleagues, I was good at choosing who to do the certain role and that I was a good listener when we decided to tweak a certain scene.
With great consideration, Danni and I gave the role of the director of photography, sound technician and the editor position to George. He was given these three roles as he was the most experienced at editing on the macs. Also unlike him, I had very shaky hands, so I could not take the role of the director. I did propose to him, that he should try to be a director of the film, however he told both me and Danni that he is more of a do what he is told to then direct. The director of photography is the camera and lighting crews boss. He usually observes the film and is the responsible person for the technical decisions.
Sound technicians on the other hand are required to operate and maintain the technical equipment used to record, enhance or reproduce sound.
They identify the sound requirements for a given task or are given a situation by the director for which they should use appropriate actions for the creations of a certain sound. There are different types of sound technicians. George is in the range of films, however other sound technicians may work in the broadcasting area or the live performance area or even the advertising and audio recordings.
Our team decided to appoint me as one of the two producers as it would be fair for each member of the team to have two rolls. Another reason why this role was given to me was because was apparently very efficient with working with the financial side of the production and I held good managerial aspects. This meant that I was able to go around and watch what each people are doing to see whether they are doing things correctly and to correct them if they are incorrectly behaving or working in an unsafe way. The role of the Film producer is to prepare and then supervise the making of a film before presenting it.
And last but not by importance least is Danniella, which we chose to be the Mise-en-scene coordinator. The reason why she was the chosen one for this roll was that she held an outstanding artistic soul and is good at hair and make up (which is a very important aspect as actors need to look beautiful or scary professionally). Thanks to her professionalism, we should be able to achieve throughout our opening scene the 3 S`. She is also the most talented in creating the bios of the characters. If I was given that job, the killer`s name would be Jerald (She did not give him a name so he is more mysterious). She is also good at creating costumes which is vital for our thriller, as if we choose somebody else to do this, we may have ended up with rubbish costumes which will make our thriller look cheap. Danniella is a good organiser, which is another reason why we chose her, as she will be able to control what goes on the set and will not forget to bring props to the specific scenes in which they are vital.
