Group Meetings (Georgiou)

Group Meetings

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussion
05.11.12	Review Individual Storyboard	05.11.12	Whole Group	Discuss the ideas and concepts that all group members have. Reflect on individual ideas and  create a group storyboard
06.11.12	Planning the cinematography	08.11.12	Whole Group	Discuss what camera movement, shots and techniques to use. Refer to lighting.
07.11.12	Organising Location	07.11.12	Whole Group	Visit various locations and decide which one would be best and conventional to our thriller opening. Roughly plan where to shoot individual scenes.
08.11.12	Choosing the iconography to use	10.11.12	Whole Group	Discuss what items and objects are more effective and conventional to use in a thriller and then finalise who will buy what.
09.11.12	Analysing different lighting techniques	10.11.12	Whole Group	Refer back to where appropriate and what time of day to shoot what scene. Day/night.
10.11.12	Finalising scenes	12.11.12	Whole Group	To discuss how many scenes there will be in our opening and what will happen in each scene. Refer back to storyboards.
11.11.12	Finally decide what dates to film opening.	13.11.12	Whole group	Group meeting to decide on what dates we should start and finish filming.
12.11.12	Get equipment and props ready for filming	14.11.12	Whole group	Everyone get together at agreed location where we will be filming.

To start filming on the 15^th November 2012

Questionaire (Hartt)

Questionnaire:

1. What is your favourite movie genre? 

2. Do you watch thriller films on a regular basis? 

3. What is your favourite thriller movie and why?

4. What do you look for in a thriller movie opening?

5. Where do you think is the best location to film a thriller movie opening? 

6. What do you think is the best iconography (weapon) to use in a thriller? 

7. What do you find effective about thrillers?

8. If you enjoy thrillers, why? 

9. What sort of story line keeps you hooked into a thriller film? 

10. Have you ever turned a thriller film off before it finised? Is so why? 

As a group we interviewed a variety of people asking them questions from our questionnaire.

My Groups Credits (Hartt)

 

 

The name of our production company is called 'Dark Arts'. This will be shown first in our opening credits following out thriller title 'Twisted Eye'. We came up with the name twisted eye as a group. It orginally was going to be used for our production company name however we thought it would make more sense if it was our title name. We used twisted eye as the narrative is about a stalker who kidnaps the victim. Following that, We are then going to list the producers Me, Ayesha and dipika. Each member of the group directed produced and acted in the thriller. This is shown in the opening credits.

 

 

Characters Representation (Hartt)

Characters Representation

The Stalker:

Name: Hidden Identity

Age: 20 years oldGender: Male

Race: White British

Purpose of the narrative: The purpose of the stalker is to kidnap the victim he is obsessed with. He constantly stalks her where ever she goes and at one point in our narrative he texts her off of a unknown number.

How will the character appeal to the audience? The aim of this character was to make the audience dislike the stalker. This was because the he is is seen as the evil character in our narrative and we have used the conventions to create suspense shock and surprise based around this character to make it effective. The audience cannot see the stalkers facial expressions which is conventional as it stops them from building a relationship with the character.

The Victim:
Name: Dipika Sharma
Age: 16Race: Indian
Purpose of the narrative: Dipika is an ordinary teenager who is walking to her friends house to collect some homework when she starts to receive threatening text messages. She ignores them as she thinks it is just someone playing a joke on her until one day she wakes up in a dark room tied up. The stalker kidnapped the victim whilst she was walking through the forest on the way home from her friends house.
How will the character appeal to the audience? The character of the victim appeals to the audience as she is an ordinary 16 year old who is perceived to be vulnerable. Dipika is a female which is a generic convention in thrillers. They are seen to be the weaker gender and this is displayed in our characters. The audience can see her vulnerability though the use of costume. She is wearing white which connotes her innocence. The audience builds up a sympathetic relationship with this character through the mise-en-scene conventions used such as facial expressions. The fearful facial expressions allows the audience to relate and experience the situation the character is in making our thriller effective.


The Victim:
Name:Ayesha AliAge: 16
Purpose of the narrative: Asian British
How will the character appeal to the audience: The victims friend appeals to the audience because like the victim she is seen as a vulnerable character in the situation. She was unable to help prevent her friend from getting kidnapped and therefore the audience feels sorry for her. The relationship with this character and the audience isn't emphasized as much as the other two characters as the role is less important.

Each character representation we used in our thriller was to help create surprise shock and suspense. This will make our thriller successful as the are appealing to our target audience allowing them to relate to our characters.

Preliminary Task (Georgiou)

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, in groups we recorded a minute sequence of a simple scene. We decided to go with two girl arguing in the corridors at school. We used a number of camera shots and once we had filmed it, we editied the film to make a contiuous clip.

This is a close up shot showing Ayesha walking down the stairs. It then zooms out revealing the rest of her body. We used a tripod so that when zooming out the camera was ready and smooth. This would be a good camera shot to use in a thriller film as it could hide someones identity of get the audience to focus on a particular thing to highlight importance.

The next camera shot we used was match on action. This showed Ayesha walking from the stair case through to the corridor in the other part of the school. This was effective because i showed her walking towards a door and then using a mid shot it showed her opening the door from the other side. This went well because as the camera turned the tripod kept the camera still. This would be a good camera shot to use in a thriller because it could show character walking into different scenes for example you could use it to show someone breaking and entering a house.

The next camera shot we used was point of view. We place the camera behind dipika as she was picking up her book to make it clear to the audience what she was doing. The camera shot shows the audience the view from the characters perspective. This camera shot would be good to use in a thriller film as you could show two characters exchanging a conversation or use it to show someone watching a victim.

The next camera shot we used was a mid shot. This was effective because it showed Dipika and Ayesha arguing about who walked into who. The camera shot showed some background enough that the audience can see the setting they are in however not too much that shows unwanted people of doors etc. This would be a good camera shot to use in a thriller because it could show the main character they want the audience to focus whilst showing the background without using a long shot.

One thing i thought that went well with the preliminary task was we used a variety of camera angles and managed to not get people walking past. We also manages to minimise unwanted noise as much as we could to make it seem more realistic and focus on what the characters were saying. We mostly had a steady camera however at one point there camera was slightly shaky.

One problem we had when filming our preliminary task was that the corridors were narrow. This meant that it was hard to use the tripod using some camera shots such as point of view. We overcome this by holding the camera ourselves which gave use more room to move however when it come down to filming our thriller, we will have to pick our locations carefully an make sure we have enough room to move around.

Individual Storyboards (Georgiou)

Individual Storyboards

The storyboard above shows the first scene of my thriller narrative. The victim wakes up in a dark room with her hands and feet tied up. The iconography i am going to use ropes and duct tape. This is conventional because it will highlight to the audience that she is unable to move or call for help. This builds suspense for the audience. I am going to use low-key lighting as it will create shadows making the room seem creepy and mysterious and to make the audience question where the victim is. The camera shot i wanted to use was a close up on the victims hands and the rope and then it gradually zooms out revealing the rest of her body. I think this will be effective because when it zooms out the audience will be able to clearly see the victims facial expressions making them empathise for her. It also allows them to look at the costume and make up of the character. The victim will be wearing an item of white to connote that she is innocent and her make will show mascara on her cheeks for her crying. The costume and make is effective because they show the audience that she is the generic victim that is being held hostage. Once the victim wakes up the screen will dissolve into a flashback. This will then show what had happened to her the previous day. The victim and her two friends are walking to school when she receives a text message from an unknown number. The camera will be on a close up so the audience will be able to read what it said. The girl dismisses it and carries on walking to school. In the flashback scenes I want to use high key lighting to make it seem more realistic. It appears to the audience that it is just an ordinary day with ordinary people and they are less likely to suspect anything bad to happen in day light.  I decided that i wanted to use non-diegetic sound in these scenes as it will help surprise the audience with the text, shock them by the fact that they are being watched and it builds suspense as they don't know who it is or where the stalker is.



In this storyboard, the girls have finished at school and they are waiting outside the school for their friend (the victim). The victim doesn't turn up and the girls just assume she walked home early. It will then show the victim walking home when she receives another text message from an unknown number. The close up shot will show the audience what the message says surprising them. I am then going to do another camera shot but this time it will be a point of view of the stalker watching his victim.This is conventional because it shows a victim getting stalked creating suspense for the audience. I am going to use high key lighting so it looks like a normal day after school. In the scene that stalker will be wearing a black hoody with black gloves. This is conventional as the colour black connotes death. This gives the audience a sense of foreboding. The hoody is also conventional as it helps hide the identity of the stalker creating an enigma. I want to used non-diegetic sound as well as diegetic sound in this scene. The noise of the mobile phone will catch the audiences attention whereas the non-diegetic sound will help contribute to the shock and suspense of what is going to happen. In this scene i plan to use a number of different camera shots such as low angle, close up, zoom out to really show the effect of the stalker watching his victims.

This storyboard shows the scene where the two friends meet at a park to talk about their friend and her weird behaviour. The location of the park is conventional because it highlights the fact that that's where vulnerable children go to play during the day however at night no one is ever there making the isolated from a crowd. I am going to use low key lighting to suggest to the audience a passing of time from the beginning of the day to the evening. The two girls are sitting on the swings talking when in unison they both receive a text message from an unknown number. The diegetic sound will surprise and shock the audience as they wont suspect the friend to be watched by the stalker as well as the victim. The camera shot will be a close up on the message which says the stalker has kidnapped their friend and if they want to get her back they have to meet in a forest at a certain time. This is conventional because the use of iconography is used as a weapon. Once the girls go to the forest they are told to dig up a box that contains as key to the room that the victim is kept in. The low key lighting will help create strong shadows creating a creepy mysterious atmosphere.The iconography that will be used is going to be a key and a shovel. This is conventional as it could be seen as weapon the are leading them to their deaths.  Once the girls get the key they are texted an address. The address leads to an old warehouse and the key opens the door. They are confronted with their friend lying tied up on the floor in the dark. I am going to use a long shot showing the two girls untying her from the ropes. However when they attempt to run home they are stopped by the stalker. A close up will reveal the stalkers identity and the screen will fade to black. I will then use non- diegetic sound of three gun shots to highlight to the audience the death of the three girls. This is conventional because it shows a death of the innocent victims (typically females) and also because the iconography is a generic weapon used in thrillers to kill people. I will also super impose a soundtrack to help enhance the shock, surprise and suspense for the audience. The non-diegetic sound will be effective because it will constantly keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

As a group discussion we decided to use certain features of each of our individual narratives to make our final story-line.  From my individual narrative we are going to use the beginning section where the victim is kidnapped and held hostage in a dark room. We are going to stick with the iconography, music, lighting etc and use the flashback however, we are going to change what happens in the flashback and the reason the girl got kidnapped. 

Planning Editing Styles (Georgiou)

Planning Editing Styles

Editing:

Editors job is to organise the footage and arrange individual shot combining them into one continuous sequence. Every scene has dozens of different shots that have to be chosen and assemble from all of the film. The editor's choices about which shots to use and the order in which place them, have a profound effect on the appearance of the overall film.

Why is editing important?

Editing is important because it creates a coherence and continuity to a film. Editing is where you take the best camera shots and arrange them accordingly to create the story-line. It also prevents miscommunication between scenes. Editing is also known as the 'invisible art' because if it is done well, viewers are so engaged in the film they are unaware of the editors work.

What types of editing styles will you include in your thriller and why?

We have decided to use a number of different editing styles in our thriller film to help build suspense, surprise and shock to the audience.

• Fast Editing - We have decided to use fast editing in our thriller film because it can show a large amount of information within a couple of seconds. By using the fast editing it will highlight straight away to the audience who the stalker and the victim is. It straight away creates an enigma of who the stalker is and why he is burning a picture of the girl. We also decided to use fast editing to create a chaotic atmosphere which is conventional to the thriller genre.
• Eye line match - We decided to use eye line match as part of our editing to show the audience what the stalker is looking at. It also make the audience see everything from his perspective almost like its them watching the victim behind not the character themselves.
• Dissolve cut/Flashback - We are going to use this style of editing to show the audience a flash back of what happened to the victim after she woke up in the dark room.

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.