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.

Film Schedule (Georgiou)

Film Schedule

The table above shows the film schedule we are going to use to help structure us when filming or thriller film. It is important to have a film schedual because it makes it easier when it comes to filming. The film schedule shows you what location you need for each scene, who needs to be acting in it, who needs to be filming it and what camera shot you plan to use. It is a good way of communicating with the rest of the group as it makes it clear what we need to do.
The only changes we made to the film schedual was each person in the group took turning in filming what they thought was the best and we used more camera shots than stated.

Group Storyboards (Georgiou)

Group Storyboards

The storyboard shows the scenes that we are going to use at the beginning of our thriller film. The stalker is sitting at a desk wearing a black hoody and gloves. This is conventional because the colour black connotes death and it helps conceal the identity of the stalker. We decided that we are going to use low-key lighting because it creates strong, bold shadows on the walls making it seem more mysterious and creepy. One of the camera shots is going to show the stalker writing in a diary. The words will highlight threat for the victim showing the audience he has a plan to hurt her. The second camera shot shows the stalker cutting his hand with a knife and dripping the blood on the pages he just wrote on. This is conventional because the iconography is a generic weapon often used in thriller films. We plan to use fake blood which helps make the scene appear more realistic. Another camera shot we are going to use is the stalker lighting a match and burning a picture of his victim. This is effecting because it shows the audience straight away who the victim is. The fire symbolises danger which is a generic theme in thrillers. Each scene is only going to be a few seconds long as we are using fast-editing. We are going to jumble up the scenes whilst playing loud non-diegetic music. The non-diegetic music is effective because it keeps the audience in suspense. The audience are aware that something bad is going to happen to the person in the picture and the music create a level of anticipation. We decided to use non-diegetic music because we believed that because we are using fast editing, the non-diegetic sound would be made to match the speed of the film. It will get louder the quicker the film gets making the audience even more anxious.

The second storyboard shows the victim being tied up in a dark room where the stalker had kidnapped her. We decided that we want to use low-key lighting because we thought it would help hide the background in the room more making the audience question the location. We also used it because it creates shadows which is conventional to the thriller genre. The camera will start of on a close up on her and gradually zoom out revealing that she is tied up. The iconography we plan to use is rope and duck tape. This is used to stop her speaking/yelling for help and tie her up so that she cannot escape. We plan to use different angles such as high angle, low angle when filming the victim wake up and look around the room. We are going to use straight cut, slow editing in this scene to emphasise the disorientation of the victim when she wake up and because it creates a level of anxiety for the audience. In this scene we decided as a group that we are going to use non-diegetic sound to make the audience anxious. We used it in this scene to create surprise, shock and suspense. This scene is where the audience are unaware of what happened to the victim and so the music emphasises importance of the enigma our thriller.At the end of the scene with the girl waking up the camera is going to zoom in on the victims eye and dissolve into a flashback. The film is then going to show what happened the previous day and how the victim got herself in that predicament. The next scene is going to be the victim walking to her friends house. we are using high key lighting to make it appear like an ordinary day. The victim is going to wear a white jumper to connote her innocence. We are going to do a number of different camera shots such as zoom in/out low angles, long shot to make the film more tense.

This storyboard is showing what happened in the flashback. The victim is walking to her friends house to collect some homework. We are going to film her walking towards the house and the two characters exchanging conversation. Whilst the victim is walking to the house we are going to use camera shots such as low angles to show the stalker following her. The camera shot will show the black boots of the stalker. This is conventional because we have used the colour black to connote death. The low angle is conventional to the thriller genre because it hides the identity of the stalker creating an enigma. We are also going to use point of view shot showing the stalker watching the victim from behind. In these scenes we plan to use non-diegetic sound because the deep tone will help build suspense and shock the audience. We are also going to use straight cut editing to show continuity through our thriller film. Once we use the scene where to two characters are talking to each other we are going to use diegetic such as the ringing of the door bell of the conversation. When the friend goes to collect the homework the victim is going to receive a text message from a unknown number. We are going to use birds eye view to show the message. The iconography we plan to use in this particular scene is the mobile phone. The close on the phone highlights the unknown number which will make the audience anxious.

In the storyboard it shows the final scene where the stalker finally kidnaps the victim. It is going to be set in a forest because it is a generic location in thriller and because it highlights the fact that it is an isolated location and no one will be able to hear the victim scream. We are going natural lighting because it starts of light but graudally gets dark. The stalker is going to be following the victim when you hear diegetic sound if a twig snap. This make the victim look behind where she notices the stalker standing behind her. She screams and begins to run. To make it more effective we are going to use a hand held camera shot. This helps emphasis the chaotic situation and help the audience see it from the victims point of view. Eventually the stalker catches the girl and covers her mouth so she cant call for help. This is coventional because it shows the typical victim getting kidnapped. The iconography in the scene is going to be the gloves the stalker is wearing, the book the victim collected from her friends house and the victims mobile phone. The gloves are coventinal because they are black. This is effective because the audience know to associate the stalker with black clothing.The camera will then zoom back in onto her eye to show that the flashback has ended and she is back in the dark room.

Opening Scene Narration (Georgiou)

Opening Scene Narration

For our opening scene we decided to started off using fast editing. We are going to do a number of camera shots showing the stalker either burning pictures of his victim or writing about what he is going to do to her. This is conventional because straight away it introduces the character highlighting to the audience he is a stalker. They will be able to see this through the use of colours and costume. The stalker is going to be dressed in a black hoody, leggings, gloves and black boots. This is conventional because the colour black connotes death which gives the audience a sense of foreboding. We decided to use low-key lighting in this scene so it created strong shadows building a mysterious atmosphere. The non-Diegetic sound will help contribute to the atmosphere making the audience even more anxious.

The next scene is where dipika (victim) is kidnapped and the audience can see she has been held hostage. The camera shot starts off zoomed in on her hands where you can see rope tying them together. This is conventional because the use of iconography shows she is captured and cannot escape. Straight away it highlights to the audience that she is the victim in the thriller. The camera will then start to slowly zoom out revealing more rope tied her feet and arms up. She starts of lying on the floor when she wakes up and remembers what happened to her. The camera shots are effective because the audience we able to see the victims facial expression allowing them to build up a relationship with the character. This is conventional because it make the audience experience the same fear and the victim. We are going to use low-key lighting in this scene because it helps hide details about the room she is in and it shows the shadows of the stalker and her against the wall. Non-Diegetic sound will be super imposed to help build suspense. The speed of the sound will be slow to match the camera shots and gradually build a creepy atmosphere. At the end of the scene the camera is going to zoom back in onto the victim and stops when it only shows dipikas eye. We will edit it to dissolve suggesting to the audience it is going into a flash back to reveal what happened to her the previous day.

In the flashback the victim is walking to her friends how to pick up some homework. The camera starts of zoomed in but zooms out as she walks closer towards the camera. We will use a number of different camera shots to show the victim watching her walking to the house. One camera shot will be a low angle where the camera is place on the floor and the stalker walks past showing only their boots. The other one is a point of view shot behind a tree showing her walk up onto the drive. These camera shots are conventional because it conceals the identity of the stalker creating an enigma and making the audience anxious. Once dipika rang the door bell the camera will show her friend (Ayesha) sitting on her laptop. As she answers the door the cameras will go onto a close up showing the door unlock. Both girls exchange a conversation and the friend leave the victim to collect the book. Dipika then receive a text from an unknown number asking about the book her came to collect. She dismisses it and carrys on. The non-diegetic sound gets louder and harsher as the victim receives the text because it makes the audience think something bad will happen building suspense. The victim was dressed in normal clothes a girl would wear making it seem more realistic. Dipika wore a white jumper which connotes her innocence. This contrasts with the stalkers outfits highlighting the generic character roles.

The next scene will show dipika walking home through the forest. We are going to use angles such as long shots to show her walking with the stalker standing behind her. We will use the location of the forest because it is conventional to the thriller genre. It highlights to the audience that it is an isolated setting and no one would be able to hear her scream. The time we will film it, it will begin to get dark which is conventional to the thriller genre because it creates a mysterious atmosphere. We will use diegetic sound such as the twig snapping to get victim to look behind her. She notices the stalker standing there, screams and starts running. We are going to show this through a hand held camera shot. The camera shot is effective because it makes it appear chaotic and unsettling. The non-diegetic sound will be fast at this point to help contribute to the tense atmosphere. The final camera shot is a close up on the victims face and the stalkers hand over her mouth. It is then going to fade to black and goes back to the scene where the victim wakes up in the black room. The camera shot will zoom back out of her eye and leave on her hearing the stalker walk towards the door.

Risk Assessment (Georgiou)

Hazard	Precaution of hazard
Someone could trip on the trailing wires.	We will use gaffer tape to secure it to the ground.
We are going to use knifes for iconography.	Ensure that we are being careful when using in and have a first aid kit nearby just in case someone cuts themselves.
We are going to go to the forest where we could slip and fall.	We are going to stay in groups so if someone gets hurt we can help.
We are going to tie Dipika’s up with rope and she could fall over.	We are going to make the ropes lose enough for her to release her hands and move any sharp objects out of the way.

In the table above, there is a list of possible hazards whilst filming our thriller opening. I have then wrote how we can take precautions in order to prevent these hazards for happening. I produced this table using Microsoft word and as a group we will use this as a guideline to make sure we are all safe and unharmed.
It is essential to consider the risks before film so we are aware of what could possibly happen and we can be careful avoiding these hazards. The risk assessment will assist my group when filming our thriller opening because we will take precautions such as buying gaffer tape and moving sharp objects aside.