Props

Set / Location

Here is an Animoto I used this program to make a short video about My Set and Location choice.

Cost for costumes

Victims Costume Costs -

Serial Killers Costume Costs - 

Serial Killer Costume Ideas :

- Dark Navy Boilersuit

- Splattered in Blood/Paint

- Barefoot

Dead Body Costume Ideas:

- Wife Beater/White Tanktop - Stained, Tattered

- Scratch and cut marks on his face, chest, and arms

- White Shorts

- Barefoot

Feedback – Blank Canvas Pitch

This is the feedback we got regarding our pitch on Friday, the 4th of December, including the rehearsal shoot.

• Nice camera angles.
• Difficult to show a cut up body, however what if the painting was drawn in blood from the body on a canvas – people wouldn't expect that. Using the body to create the painting/sculpture – using the vicitim as material than rather cutting it up.
•  Torture.
• Using a guy is a better idea (as the victim) as it isn't stereotypical.
• Location: Depends – if you want a studio, you can use the art room instead of just using the studio.

  ~ Don't do the hallway thing, keep it in one location.

Our response to the feedback:

• The new idea is that the victim is dead and that the psychopath is drawing in the victim's blood.
• Discarded the hallway idea.
• Everything else is still the same.

Scene Outline:

• Slowly introduced to our male psycho killer
  • Show shots of his eyes, his hands, etc. to create tension

• Slow build up of shots that increase in importance
  • As we go along we see the parts of the paintbrush, blood palette, etc.
• We then see the body
  • The body is no longer suspended from the wall or a slab
    • Body is now seated on a chair or lying on the floor, bloody and dying/dead.
  • We see a scalpel lying somewhere, alongside knives and other weapons.
• In the end, the killer is shown manically smiling
  • Obviously happy, shaking, sweat dripping down his head, and the canvas full of blood is shown.

    
    

What is a storyboard?

What is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a crucial part of the film process. It is basically a sketch out of the entire film. It saves cost as films are expensive to run and make so by producing a shot by shot of the film you can save more time and therefore more money.

Generally -
It is a visual aid to help your idea.
Helps to plan your idea and be creative also.

It saves a lot of time.
You can plan the technical and how you will approach the filming.
It is easier to spend time in pre production than to be on set and change things.
Visually everyone can be on the same page.

What's on a Storyboard?

• Shot number
• Location 
• Action
• Shot/movement
• Sound
• Lighting
• Transition
• Timing

Our Storyboard.

Here is our storyboard that we all created in our group together. We devised it by making sure we knew what we wanted step by step shot wise. This will hopefully help us in the long run when we are shooting our thriller so that we can be more organised and efficient as in the film business "Time is Money".

Moodboard for Thriller

Pitch Presentation

Our Thriller Idea – Blank Canvas

Pitch:

• A man seems to be painting something, and seems to get frustrated with what he is doing. In the end, it reveals that he is actually messing up a body of a person, killing them in the process.

Outline:

• Over all: Going down the hallway (for 30 seconds) – cross cuts/flashes between what is going on in the room and the hallway; the flashes increase in length until it just shows what is going on within the room.

• Slowly introduced to our male psycho killer
  • Show shots of his eyes, his hands, etc. to create tension

• Slow build up of shots that increase in importance
  • As we go along we see the parts of the scalpel (isn't made obvious), blood palette, etc.
• We then see the body
  • The body is suspended from the wall or a slab 
• In the end, the killer is shown manically smiling
  • Obviously happy, shaking, sweat dripping down his head.

Casting/Location:

• We need two men, one older man in his 40's, and the other one is in his 20's.
  • James Hurtman as the psychotic killer (maybe)
• The studio

Footage of test shoot: 

• 
  

Moodboard –

Reflection of test shoot

I do indeed think our test shoot was very helpful in the overall progression to our thriller. I'm hoping that our thriller will go along the same lines as our test shoot as it was very similar to what we as a group want our thriller to be like. It was great to have a test shoot as it helped us explore and experiment with different angles and really get to know what we wanted the acting style to be like.

We did decide however after we watched the footage back from the test shoot that we would have it as two boys instead of a boy kidnapping a girl as we thought that would be a great way of subverting the stereotype and also would be a good use of tension and mystery which helps convey the thriller genre hopefully in our end product of our thriller opening sequence.

Test shoot

Minute meetings

My media Thriller production Group consists of Evelyn, Sam, Eloise and myself.

Yesterday (18.11.2015) we discussed about our main idea; what idea do we want to pursue?

We decided that we wanted to work with my first idea of the psychopathic painter, and have brought up several ideas to develop it a little.

The ideas of what we wanted to add are:

- A hallway at the beginning with a trackingshot that would lead to the camera "finding" the killer in the room.

- Shooting in a warehouse.

- No sound other than exentuated diegetic sound (dripping, etc.)

Today (19.11.2015) we thought about what we use as our backup idea. We decided on one of Sam's ideas; here is a brief summary of what that idea is:

- The entire thing is shot in a public toilet, shot from the toilet bowl/top of the toilet.

- A man in a suit staggers in, leans on the toilet, and plops things such as his wallet, phone, and clothes into it.

- The idea basically revolves around a man getting rid of his life - there is a psychopathic element included in this.

We then decided to continue talking about our main idea, and decided to make a Scene outline.

This is where things got a little out of hand, as we began concentrating on the details; we had thought of things like:

- First shot: going down the hallway, the lighting is creepy, like only one part of the warehouse is lit, it's a steadycam shot, shot going towards the door.

- There are extreme close ups of small details like paint drips, the paintbrushes, and facial expressions, etc. It would never reveal what he's actually doing, and reveal that there is someone else there - you wouldn't notice what is actually going on though.

- At the end of the sequence the main character would be looking at the face of the Body, staring it in the eyes.

- Man starts going crazy a little, Frustration, man is upset. Close ups of the Frustration - screaming at the body.

This is where we lost it a little.

What are we going to do?

I thought that it would be a good idea for us to go back to our houses and try and attempt to shoot the sequence we had in mind. I think hat this could potentially work, and would give us an opportunity to look at the timing of everything.

Sub genres within Thriller Genre.

Thriller
Thrillers are usually defined by the mood they elicit (hence the name). “Sensational and suspenseful” stories and stories creating “fearful excitement” are two definitions I found. Because of this, thrillers are crossed with almost every other genre. I’ve tried to only include mash-ups when their combination falls under my definition of “interesting.”

Action Thriller
Take any other thriller subgenre, give it’s defining elements a back seat, and focus on the action, and you have an action-thriller. This is more common in movies than novels because of the visual appeal of explosions and violence.

Conspiracy Thriller
In this subgenre the protagonist must confront a large, powerful organization whose threat only he sees. Usually he must do so alone.

Crime Thriller
This subgenre focuses on crime, and is usually from the criminal’s point of view. Physical action and eluding the police take the place of gathering evidence and trying to discover the criminal.

Disaster Thriller
In this subgenre usually a natural disaster is taking place, and the antagonist is either trying to stop the disaster, the extent of the disaster, or just save themselves before time runs out and the disaster has run its course.

Eco-Thriller
In this subgenre the protagonist must stop a threat to the environment (man-made or natural) that will have consequences for society if left unchecked. The damage could be local, but nation or even world-wide stakes are more dramatic. ;)

Forensic Thriller
In this subgenre the protagonist(s) are forensic scientists whose involvement in an unsolved crime threatens their lives.

Legal Thriller
This subgenre takes place in and around the courtroom. Usually the protagonist is a lawyer who has found their case threatening death for either them or their client.

Medical Thriller
This subgenre involves something usually used for medical purposes becoming a deadly weapon. Often it is a virus that is leaking out to the public. The protagonist or antagonist or both are doctors.

Mystery Thriller
This is a subgenre of both mysteries and thrillers. It differs from a regular mystery by being much more fast-paced, with the protagonist on the run and the threat of another crime serving as the “ticking clock.”

Political Thriller
In this subgenre political relations or the whole government is at stake, and the protagonist is employed by the government to stop the decline. The protagonist may have been low-level before having attracted attention.

Psychological Thriller
A personal favorite. In this subgenre a lot of the conflict is mental, rather than physical. The protagonist has become involved in a dangerous situation which literally threatens their sanity. They must use mental prowess to overcome their opponent, whether the battle is inside their own head or it a battle of wits.

Religious Thriller
This subgenre uses the history and myths of religion. Usually a religious artifact or historical secret is discovered, and different people and groups vie for control.

Romantic Thriller
This is a subgenre of both thrillers and romantic novels. The plot line follows a typical thriller’s tension, suspense, and excitement, but a main element is the growing relationship between two characters.

Spy Thriller
It’s hard to call this a genre mash-up when spy novels almost have to be thrillers. At any rate, this subgenre focuses on the high adventures of field agents. It is usually set against the backdrop of some war.

Supernatural Thriller
In this subgenre otherworldy elements are introduced, usually as an antagonistic force, but just as in the romantic thriller, the plot line and feel or distinctly that of thrillers. Some characters may have psychic abilities and other supernatural novel elements may be present.

Techno-Thriller
This genres is a cross between near-future science fiction and thrillers. Cutting-edge technology plays an important role, either as something to obtain, or working for or against the protagonist.

Conventions within a thriller.

The different categories in Media/Film depending on its conventions and themes.

Examples being...

Action, Adventure, Thriller, Comedy, Drama,  

Horror, Musicals/Dance, Sci-Fi,War and Westerns.

 A Category/subdivison within a genre of film.

For example for thrillers there are many sub genres including: Psychological thriller, Mystery Thriller, Supernatural thriller, Crime thriller, Film noir thriller, Legal thrillers, 

survivalist thrillers and religious thrillers.

Combination of two or more main genres in film.

For example...

Romantic-Comedy, Action-Thriller, Comedy-horror,Science Fantasy, Supernatural drama, Crime fantasy, Horror thriller and Fantasy Thriller.

Idea number 2 feedback

On 13/11/2015  - Police man murder of himself

Mia- Love that he's walking through and no one says anything to him, makes you think why is no one saying anything to him. When he says we need to solve a murder 'our murder' she finds exciting.

Amr - Love the idea, the only thing to consider is because he's walking through it for about a minute and a half and the action will only start happening in the last 30 seconds it would be hard to keep it interesting throughout the entire sequence. Think about how it would remain interesting, and adding some intensity.

Tash - Likes how the audience would be wondering where he is going, it would come  as a hit that he is the ghost.

Mike - Understands about the length and keeping it interesting, you want to make the opening sequence as interesting as possible and if you have 1 minute and 40 seconds of something quite uninteresting and then a cool reveal its not ideally enough. Premise for the film is fantastic, very original, However the worry is that the genre is blurred a little bit, Its a cool line 'our murder'. Delivered in the wrong way and brings everything down, why does he have to be told that he is going to be killed, the ghost element is what is making it science fiction. Maybe as a suggestion have the guy at a crime scene to film the flashing lights and ambience, he walks in and everyones looking nervous and he asks who is the victim and everyone tells him 'you' and he looks down and the guy dead is him, so like nothing is given to us. Feels to much like an opening to a tv programme. Could make it better by bringing a slow build up to a line that hooks us in. Got the right ingredients but just need to mix it up a little bit. Make it so we are engaged as soon as it starts and don't believe the murder our murde line in a cheesy manner. Very promising though and loves the originality. Likes the fact that I've tied it in with the prospect of him overtly trying to avoid his destiny he goes about creating it.

Feedback on Thriller Idea 1

On 13/11/2015 - Psychopath killing in Artist style.

eloise: Liked the change on the perception of what was happening, liked the spotlight idea more than the shed idea, more interesting.

Evelyn: Agrees it would be more effective it being in the studio and would be more dramatic and make it more thriller esque.

Ollie: Might be quite hard to get the length of two minutes.

Nanci: Loved the idea, individual and creative, don't expect that its going to end how it does, conveys the genre.

Mike: Could get around the length, Incredibly violent opening, borders on horror, soundtrack is the wrong way to go, sound effects, muffled screaming and slowly coming through with the sound that adds tension and would make it more of a thriller. Love the idea, love the simplicity of it, spotlighted black room as opposed to the shed idea, the shed idea makes it feel more amateur and the studio would be much better. Already different ways to think of it you could shoot with a perspex glass, you could do a pop of the victim to make it look like the brush strokes are happening to you even though they would be happening to the victim. Overall film is slightly cliche but opening sequence is excellent, little bit of tweaking on making it more suspense than horror.

Media Thriller Idea 4

Whole film - The film is about The girl being reported missing shortly after this scene and we see a big memorial for her outside the school. we then follow the school throughout the movie and it is one of those stereotypical murder ‘who did it’ thriller films. We grow close to a couple of characters until one of the english teachers best students go missing under nearly the same circumstances as Katie. We find out in the end it wasn't actually her brother who throughout we are led to believe it is because he is emotionally unstable hearing of his sisters death we all think because the guilt has literally consumed him.But actually it is the lovable english teacher who everyone grows to love in the film.

Opening Scene - A lovable teenage girl called Katie is practising a monologue after school probably about 7/8 o clock, no one else is at school but her and the lighting guy and maybe her teacher, It’s set in the theatre so its a big empty space with just one spotlight on her then the lighting guy says he has to lock up and she's fine with it and then he ‘leaves’ and then then lights turn off and then turn on and everything is distorted for example the stool she was stood next to is over turned and there are pieces of paper from the book scattered everywhere also they’re torn and the girl herself is not there anymore and she has mysteriously disappeared.

Media Thriller Idea 3

Whole film - This film is all based around A guy called Sam who is Jane’s brother who is an ex cop who was fired after accusing the wrong guy and trying to shoot a man who he suspected was the serial killer who killed his sister. He is then applying for a job, we can immediately tell he has a heart of gold. He finally finds a job that will take him with a criminal record in a mask shop called “Maury’s Masks” He is an artist so thinks this is a perfect job for him. Slowly throughout the film he is given lots of clues using his cop mind frame to determine that Maury is the masked serial killer. In the end we see a scene between Sam and Maury which is a high action fight scene and ends with ‘plot twist’ sam being killed. We then watch Maury walk away and know he has got away with it.

Opening scene - We start with a girls phone ringing and zoom in on it on her bedside table. Lots of missed calls from her best friend Jane. She picks it up as she runs out from the shower singing along to the song playing from her laptop. She tells Jane she will be outside in 5 minutes which is an obvious lie and Jane says she’ll wait for her outside. She then continues to get ready  and turns her phone on silent as she turns he music up to the loudest it can go dancing around stupidly. While this is going on we slowly zoom in on her phone which has suddenly got about 20 missed calls and a lot of texts starting with a simple “Im outside babes, hurry!” escalating to more urgency in her texts which shows obviously something is wrong, texts like “help”, “someone is here” and “he is going to kill me” all popping up on her screen. Jane of course has turned it on silent so she has noticed any of this until we pan up to jane and she is ready she slowly walks toward he phone which she checks and then drops in fear. She runs downstairs to check for her friend with phone in hand and she is nowhere to be seen but there is a pool of blood on her driveway. She then looks down on her phone and there is a text saying ‘run’ from Janes account which had been sent about 5 minutes before, which is obviously someone else before she can even have a chance and we pan down to the floor as we see her drop to the ground obviously having been shot.

Thriller Idea 2 -

Opening Sequence - Long shots of a a normal looking man with a hat on and we follow him from behind pov, he walks through an office sort of seeming to be ignored. We see him walk through a busy foyer seamlessly with out being asked any questions, hopefully making the audience trust the guy we are being shown. We then see him knock on a door and hear a voice say come in, all this time still not seeing the face of the man who had knocked on the door, we come into a normal cop in his office, the man enters, and we see the man at the desk looking at the man who has just entered, he then asks the cop to solve a murder. When the cop asks who was murdered in a laughing sort of tone, the guy who has walked in says'We were,' and we are then shown a mid shot of the guy lowering his collar & taking off his hat to reveal that the client is the cop is himself, as a sort of ghost from his own future, trying to solve his own murder before it happens. 

Whole Film- The film would follow the cop trying to solve his own murder being driven by himself/ his ghost throughout. the ghost would make the cop question his trust with every person near or not so near and dear to him. Eventually driving him to near insanity and ending up with him trusting no one. It ends with him killing himself, which the ghost has been trying to warn him not to do all along but by him being so uptight he sort of drives himself to kill himself.

Thriller Idea 1

THRILLER IDEA  1 - 

Opening Sequence - Intense looking man, psychopathic looking. Vivaldi’s 4 seasons/serenade 13 in g major by mozart playing loudly in the background, man looks as though he is painting a large canvas, intense motions like he is passionately painting. extreme close ups of the face to show intensity, sweat dripping down his forehead, wearing a boiler suit with splashes of JUST red paint on it, close ups of paint palate of just watery red paint (at this point the audience feels as though the worst thing he’s doing is painting with blood). At this point you don’t see the canvas or the instrument he is using to paint with. The man steps back from his ‘painting’ and reveals that what should be a paint brush is actually a scalpel and the camera pans round and his ‘canvas’ is actually a human body, tied with its hands above its head, still alive, gagged and bound with lots of blood coming from the stomach. Final shot is an extreme close up of the man smiling maniacally and laughing softly to himself obviously pleased with what he has created. 

(The song in the background totally contrasts the actions of what is happening, the calm nature of the man suggests psychopathic tendencies, goes against some general thriller conventions, but conforms to others like the introduction of an protagonist without giving too much away)

Whole Film - The man we are shown is a hitman. He is payed by mobsters mostly to do there dirty work but also gets a sick pleasure out of all his killings as he feels like he needs to do them in a perfect way, maybe he has obsessive compulsive disorder possibly. He clearly enjoys his job and feels no sense of remorse for lost life. We are following his killings throughout until finally his bosses kick him out of the mob or they get arrested and he is out of a job and a way to channel his psychopathic tendencies. 

Conventions of a thriller using tagxuedo.

Prelim Part 2

This is our preliminary  task video. We filmed this video ourselves allocating a director, camera operator and two actors. We followed the story board given to us that is in my last post and the two actors were told by me, the director what sort of plot we were going for. I decided that we should just have Amr, one of our actors to come in through the door and be asking Mia to send a important message before he goes to war. Evidently I instructed Mia following the outline of the storyboard to refuse which created the amount of tension necessary for the scene plot we went with. I am over all happy with how it turned out as it was the first time I have worked with a camera and been a director and feel like i have learnt a lot.

Sound in a Thriller Analysis: The Departed Elevator Scene

The thriller scene I have chosen to analyse is from the film ‘The Departed’. I’ve chosen the elevator scene because this is one of my favourite scenes in any thriller, it’s very action packed and the sound used in it really adds to the atmosphere and brings the whole piece together. 

The scene begins with non-diegetic music featuring flowing orchestral sounds, which compliments the slow panoramic pan shots of the city. This music is used by the director in order to give a feeling

 of tension as well as a feeling of relaxation. These feelings do contrast each other and I think this is why the director chose this specific music. It’s a confu

sing time in the film with 4 characters coming together and clashing in blood and violence. The non-diegetic orchestral music is abruptly stopped when Leonardo Di Caprio , who plays Billy Costigan, slams the door to the roof of the building, possibly meant to shock the audience, as this is a direct contrast to the flowing music that was playing before, it is unexpected by the audience and the loud noise is mean to keep the audience on the edge of their seat. This diegetic slam brings a sense of urgency to the scene. The sound also lets the audience know that Matt Damon, who plays Colin Sullivan, is trapped on the roof of the building with nowhere else to go. This causes the audience to start panicking for the characters, a sign of a good thriller movie. The orchestral music from the start is then replaced with loud and frantic diegetic sounds of shouting from Damon and Di Caprio. The use of vulgar dialogue goes towards creating a hostile and tense environment in which the characters are situated. The shouting contrasts the music from the beginning. The diegetic sounds of birds (possibly seagulls) suggests that the actors are high up, this gives the audience a sense of isolation and therefore more tension for the audience. We also hear diegetic sounds of punching connoting a fight happening and also adding a sense of violence, these sounds were purposely put in by the director to make the audience flinch and worry for the character of Matt Damon, as well as keeping them interested in the scene. The diegetic sound of the cocking of the gun adds yet more tension to the scene as it means the audience is expecting a gun shot. The shouting dialogue between the actors connotes panic and anger in the scene. On the roof there are a few times in which silence is used by the director tactically in order to create a hostile and tense atmosphere. This is difficult to do correctly as sometimes it can just seem wrong, but in this it does work.

Once inside the building, the director uses echoes of the footsteps and doors slamming connote a large empty space in this case a building, again emphasising the isolation of the characters. Long periods of silence are used once again to build tension foreshadowing that something is going to happen in the plot. The long silence in the elevator almost brings a sense of awkwardness to the scene. The long silences toward the end of the scene lead up to the loud diegetic sound of the gun shot. This loud noise echoes around the building which again shows the emptiness of the building, also suggesting that the men are not meant to be there in the first place, reinforcing their ‘bad’ characters. This gun shot contrasts the silence in the building and cuts it sharply. The echoes resonate for quite a long time before the second and third gun shots. I think the silence is used by the director in order to emphasise the importance of the gunshots and to make them stand out more and therefore resonate with the audience for longer, this scene is meant to shock and upset the audience, and I think the sound really goes a long way towards achieving this. The diegetic sounds of panting from Matt Damon’s character suggests relief that the ordeal is over and also shock, as this is a common reaction to someone in shock (hyperventilating) however, this may also connote physical exertion as he has just been in a long struggle with Di Caprio’s character. The long silence at the end most likely signifies that what has happened is significant and shocking as well as brutal, leaving the audience almost speechless. The diegetic sounds of Damon’s character cleaning his fingerprints off the gun and leaving it on the ground break the painful silence. 

All in all the director uses a lot of silence, shouting and very little music in this scene in order to show anger, violence, tension and hostility. It is a very well directed film and I like the unconventional way that sound is used as it makes it far more interesting to the viewer.

Prelim task part 1

Last week my group took part in our preliminary task for media studies. To do this we were first given a pre-written storyboard with pre-set camera angles which we would have to shoot by Matt. We decided to come up with some ideas which we would adapt the script to follow. 

Some of the ideas included a fight between a husband and a wife, a mother and a son or what we decided on to be our idea, a fight between two friends.In the end we decided to go for the two friends idea as we thought it would be relatively easy to shoot still whilst still being effective.We didn't use any props as we thought we would concentrate on the message of just two friends being caught up in the moment a bit more.We used two people from the group as actors Amr an

d Mia.

It was really interesting to do this task as it was the first time we properly were allowed to use the cameras and do some directing as I was the director. I hope this new experience will help me when putting together the upcoming thriller shoot as we know to give the actors the script beforehand and also to consider locations and plan shoots before hand with a storyboard. I am looking forward to starting my thriller shooting very much.

Editing Lesson 1

Last Friday my media class had our first editing lesson in the editing suite with Matt. It was really educating for myself because I have only ever used iMovie the software for film editing that comes on a mac laptop, so to be introduced to Adobe premier it was incredibly interesting.Matt taught us that we could actually put all our shots into a single 'bin' named 'rus

hes'. We learnt that we should do this to keep all our original shots in the same place. This was so that we could keep up good organization in our sequence editing and wouldn't lose any files because we always have a backup.

We then created a second folder named 'Log Bin' in this we put all the shots we were definitely not going to use but we could always come back to just in case - the ones that we will be using to make the finished sequence. After naming the bins we started to learn how to do the actual editing. We learned about the 'i' and 'o' keys on the keyboard that are used for 'in' and 'out' which determines how much of the shot goes into the drag window. After doing that you can drag the clip into the window at the bottom and you can cut it more or lengthen it. We then continued to do that for every other clip and edited at one to fit in with the last.

I feel I learnt a lot from my first editing lesson with Matt and I learnt that there is a great deal of skill that goes into working software like Adobe Premiere. Also we were taught to make a smooth looking, clean and crisp sequence we should avoid jump cuts and we should always cut when a shot changes from one to another, one must cut to the next when there is movement in the first scene.This movement provides a distraction to the audience and makes the whole cut a lot more efficient and clean looking. 

Film Poster Analysis - The Final Destination

This is an interesting film poster to analyse. It conforms mostly to the regular motives of a horror film movie poster, cliches and all. The lighting, first of all, is very dark and focusses mainly on dark hues of black and grey. These dark colours connote that the film will be dark in nature and therefore will have elements of horror in it, due to the connotations of the colours black and grey - the background of this film poster looks a lot like a cloudy night's sky - a typical horror film scenario. The lighting also allows for the girl's eyes to become blacked out, not showing any detail, this makes her face look more like a skull, like the bottom half of her face. This is done purposely to convey a dark and horror like atmosphere. The contrast has been turned up on the photography to show more piercing details as this is a more unsettling and graphic image for the viewer, meaning that it is more likely to put across a scary and creepy vibe. 

The facial expression used on this film poster is one of sheer horror and pain, therefore showing that the film will not be happy and upbeat but rather one of a more sinister nature, the lower half of the featured person's jaw has been replaced by a skull, therefore suggesting that death will be a prominent theme throughout the film.

This is a rather minimalist poster; however, I think this works to it's advantage as it is extremely hard hitting and stands out from other posters. There aren't any props used in the photo as it is a very simple photo that has been graphically engineered to make the woman's bottom half of her face look like it is a skull. The simplistic design allows for all the information to be taken in quickly, and the colour scheme and the presence of a skull allows the audience to know undoubtedly what kind of genre this film will be. 

The hair and makeup used in this poster is very little. The hair is almost unseen but looks very natural and regular for a woman. The makeup used is also difficult to see as the harsh lighting is not easy to view behind. However, the bright lighting is used to make her face look very pale and symbolic of a skull or a corpse, so her makeup would have to be quite pale and light. 

The setting for the poster is unspecified and is not possible to find out. It is obviously shot in a studio with harsh lighting from above, almost mimicking an interrogation scene - a harrowing and unnerving prospect, making the viewer of the poster feel unsettled and disturbed. The picture is placed behind some broken and smashed glass, this shows that there will be chaos and panic in the film as broken glass is a symbol of struggle and also of smashed windows - which is a sign of someone being somewhere they shouldn't be, this is a feature of the film, and so fits with the theme. This broken glass imagery also fits with the tagline of the film 'Rest In Pieces' which is obviously a play on the phrase 'Rest In Piece', this suggests that dismemberment will be a part of the film, suggesting that the film will be gruesome and disturbing to watch. 

The text used in the poster is white, this contrasts heavily to the dark background making it very easy to read. The glowing effect used on the white text suggests afterlife and something other worldly, and adds a kind of 'X-Files'-esque feeling to the poster. The name of the film suggests death, and so the glowing text seems like a version of heaven, this conforming to the genre of the film as it suggests death. A serif font has been chosen to do the titles, this is most likely because it conveys a more serious message, rather than a playful one, and it looks hard hitting. there is one piece of colour used in the whole poster, and that's the date, which is in a blood red colour. This stands out hugely from the rest of the poster, letting it be known to the audience that it is important and also makes it truly memorable. The blood red is obviously symbolic of bloodshed, which will therefore make the audience think that gore will be another prominent feature of the film.

Camera Lesson 2

In our second Camera lesson we first of all learnt about the 180 degree rule. This is when one can film anywhere along a straight line, to make sure the shot makes ‘sense’. For example, filming a conversation between two people from left to right will look totally different if you film pass the 180 degree line, as it will look like its going from right to left when editing. We were also told to never watch a clip of recorded footage back in the studio as it is a waste of money as studios and actors etc are very expensive to hire and it wastes time also.

Our media studies class then proceeded to start to create a sequence. We learnt from Matt that to create a worthy sequence, it takes many takes performing the same action for example our group decided to repeat the action of Nancy walking into shot taking out her phone, looking at it and then putting it away and walking off shot again.We also took on three different roles, The actor, Director and Camera woman. Our group used a wide variety of camera angles for this to add variety when we get to edit our sequences next week. We used a standard Wideshot, then a mid-shot, a close-up and an extreme close-up. We are hoping this will create a slick sequence and with many different angles and points of view.It was great to be able to use the FX100 as we hadn't used it before.

Opening Sequence Analysis.

A Nightmare On Elm Street Title Analysis. This is one of my favourite openings of any horror movie to date. I think the whole sequence is extremely harrowing and the mise en scene is dark and disturbing. In the sequence we see a character introduced; however, he is not named and his face is not shown, just his hands. He is shown to be making his signature claw like weapon. This would make the audience immediately feel uncomfortable as they know, due to the nature of the film they’re about to watch, that this is most likely going to be used to kill people. A mixture of fast and slow editing is used throughout the sequence, I believe that this is done purposely to show the erratic behaviour of the person making the weapon, showing the audience that his mood could change at any second. This makes the audience feel even more on edge as the long camera shots are usually held on the weapon that this person is making. A lot of the camera work is done in a POV style, this is quite strange for a horror film and has been done before in another earlier horror film titled ‘Halloween’ which was directed by John Carpenter. It is strange as the audience get to see the world through they eyes of a killer, which is almost sympathising with them; however, this is done to make the audience feel disturbed and unsettled as it’s not a normal viewing point for a film, it also means that the director doesn’t give away the full identity of the creature at hand, leaving some mystery to unfold in the actual movie. The sound in the movie is reasonably quiet, with only the sound of breathing to be heard. This is creepy and disconcerting for the audience as it feels like the killer is close to them. Mostly close up shots are used in this sequence in order to allow for the identity of the person making the weapon to be kept secret. 

Halloween POV Shot

Erratic Titling = Suspense

The best other title sequence from the horror genre to compare this one to would be Se7en. This is another one of my favourite title sequences and was directed by Kyle Cooper, a legend in the opening title sequence world. This sequence also features the character who plays the killer and is designed to be unsettling for the audience to watch. Mostly extreme close ups and close up shots are used in the sequence, again, I believe, to keep the identity of the killer a secret yet also to introduce the audience to the film, and give them an idea of what they are going to spend the next 90 minutes watching. Se7en’s title sequence uses extremely fast editing to create a sense of madness and chaos with flashing images which are almost too quick to properly view. I think this is done to try and portray the mindset of a psychopathic killer and what’s going on inside their heads. The person introduced in this sequence is not making a weapon, like in Nightmare on Elm Street, but rather a sort of book. This may not sound too disturbing; however, the writing is all in different languages and the pictures are graphic and disconcerting, showing that the man writing the book is somehow not completely sane, which makes the audience tense. As the sequence goes on, the editing becomes more and more erratic and quicker, creating more tension for the audience before the film actually starts. With this faster editing comes faster and faster music, this creates a sense of urgency and manic about the sequence. The mise en scene of the sequence is similar to that of A Nightmare on Elmstreet, in the sense that it is very dark, disturbing and unsettling for the audience to view, making it a fantastic opening title sequence for this type of film.

Double vision FX and different language

Book of illegible writing - Not sane

Interesting Extreme Close Up

To contrast these films, I’ve decided to use Little Miss Sunshine. This film is of the ‘drama/dark comedy’ genre, and the opening title scene is the complete opposite of the horror scenes. In this opening, the director is trying to give the audience as much information as possible about all the characters in the film, rather than withholding it to create mystery and suspense. This allows the audience to connect immediately to the characters, thus making the film more open to reliability and laughs as people feel more comfortable when they know more about the characters. The editing is much slower, done purposely to accompany the mellow soundtrack which suggests a boring and monotonous life for the family shown in the sequence. This sequence is strange as the music very much contrasts what is going on in the shots, the music is a happy and bouncy track whilst the scenes show the family all struggling through their lives. Camera techniques such as pans and tilts are used throughout the sequence in order to allow for more information to be taken in by the audience to get to know how this family lives. A mixture of extreme close ups, close ups and mid shots are used in this sequence, I believe that, again, this is done to allow the audience to feel closer to this family, a sort of ‘fly on the wall’ vibe.

Mid shots - Little girl watching beauty pageant. 

Over The Shoulder Shot - shows almost empty classroom. 

Depth of Field and focus pulls used to create an interesting shot.