Write of Media Trip BFI

In the film opening event i learned a lot about film openings. 

Learned that the Key Features in an opening are:

• Genre
• Narration
• Character
• Atmosphere
• Setting 

I made a brainstorm of what i learnt about film openings on the trip

We looked at some students work and gave them a grade and explained what we thought was good and bad about it.

Even got to meet Dexter fletcher and got his autograph!

25 word Treatment

Love Kills
A beautiful woman, happily married until she found out her husband was having an affair. Vex and revolted she turns psycho killing her husband. Hiding the body and living life 'normal'. However she does no know his 'lover' witnessed the murder and captured it on tap. Stalking and blackmailing the wife to get her revenge. Her life turns into a mess. - Physiological Thriller  






Treatment example
Obsessed 
'A successful asset manager, who has just received a huge promotion, is blissfully happy in his career and in his marriage. But when a temp worker starts stalking him, all the things he's worked so hard for are placed in jeopardy.'

Opening of a film, Inception, Limitless and Se7en

INCEPTION 


Opening scene 

The Purpose
The Purpose of this opening is to confuse the audience, but also to get a little understanding of the things they are trying to do within the dreams. The movie start with a "flash-forward", showing Cobb appears on the beach and then having conversation with old Saito. It's a storyline technique. This scene is shown again near the ending [when the time-line finally meets], before they wake up on the plane. This is to get the audience interested and suspended to see what is going to happen and to understand the story. 


They want to watch the rest as they don't want to be left confused with why there is a flash froward in the opening scene. The audience are interested to keep watching. From the begging they have captured the audiences interest and emotion of tension, suspense and mystery. 


Key Event - The flash backs and scene changes, Booms going off


Generic thriller characters-Armed man, business men, Guards 

9frames 

The main character is introduced first but washed up on an island/Beach. The audience question why he has woken up in such way.

This frame shows kids playing, backs turned so you cant see their faces. Makes the audience suspicious as why is there kids infront of him? are they his? why are they there and why is she just watching?

This frame straight away gets the audience confused as how can there be a guard with a gun, while the kids are playing. Its makes them question..is this the same scene, or was he just thinking about the kids and came back to reality?

Then the main character gets dragged into a room with Saito. He was delirious..this makes the audience aging question how did he get there why is he their?

This object is shown and used a lot the audience want to know why its used and why its so special.

The story then jumps to the main character smart and dressed up but in the same place however more modern and another character is introduced. However the main Chinese man is the same man but younger version.

The main character descusing the Dreams within drams' this starts the story and makes the audience more aware of what is happening. 

Jumps to the scene of 'reality'

This is the frame of what is really happening outside of the dream

The lighting withing the opening scene is Bright light, natural sunlight.

LIMITLESS 

The purpose
The purpose of this opening is for the audience to know the main character, how he started, what he had and lost and wanted to do (writing), what he is like and where gets the main source of his knowledge from. Its for the audience to understand the medication and the effects it gives him.

They audience want to watch the rest as they want to know more about what the character achieves with this medication 

Key Events - First time he meets his ex wife's brother since 7 years
Genetic Thriller Characters - Man smoking, drinking, in a bar

9 frames 

The main character is shown first smoking, looking mess. The opening scene is a narrative of him talking about his life

The main character again shown as a drinker

His 'friends' don't actually believe him in what he says and don't really like him as the audience can tell from their facial expression and the way they act

This frame shows the character is motivated to write as that what he wants to do....

 The setting of the characters home, dirty, cluttered, messy, dull

After a month  he still has a blank screen nothing on it. His not imaginative or can even write a book...he has nothing

This frame shows how the character is living 'Scanky' 

His losing everything , cant write a book, lost his gf

Lighting in this opening scene is dull natural, has nothing to it

Se7en

Purpose
The purpose of the opening scene is to show the audience one of the main character, what his job is and then to show the next main character introducing himself. And what the Seven days are going to evolve (Murders)
The title sequence is after the opening scene, so its an introduction to the story.


Genetic Thriller Character- Detectives, Police officers
Key events- Finding of the body and introduction to the second main character

9frames

Introduction of the 1st main character in the first scene More dominant charcter

Shows his organised clean and ready for his job

 This frame tells the audience what the film is going to be based on, Murder mystery

Introduction of the second main character 

 Lighting is very dull/Natural  

  


Looking at these films helped me understand the main things i need when filming, as i will be taking on the director roll i will need to know the type of shots to use and lighting. I know now that Close Ups are a must! i see this in most thriller films also the lighting is dim that sets the atmosphere 

Evaluation module 1

My current marks i give myself 

Completion
The work on my blog is complete, i have the Moldboards, Mind-map, frame titles, Se7en sequence, opening scene and my group blog is attached.  I give myself a level 3 for completion.


On the group blog i need to complete  the Iconic sounds for thrillers also complete the Iconic film directors. I give myself for this a level 1.


Detail/  Useful Research 
The detail on my blog i think is good as i have shown i have understood what i have been doing. For this i give myself a level 2.


For the group blog i have done little research and i have little detail on my work. Big improvements need to be made. For this i give myself a level 1.




Presentation
My presentaion on my blog i think i good as everything is well layed out, i have the group blog attached to my blog and all my members in my group attached to my blog. I give myself a Level 2


Group Blog we have all the work with who has done what on the blog, we also have all the members attached to the blog. I give this a level 2.


Time Management 
My time management on my blog i think is a level 3.


Group blog level 2

Overall i give my self a score of11 

Improvements

To improve i need to make sure i fully detail my work and put more time management and make sure i have been putting the full 4 hours into my media work. I need to be more creative, to show that i fully understand what i have been researching.

What i have done well

This module i think i have done well with editing on final cut, planning out shots, story ideas and filming. I think i have used the blog well, as i havent used a blog befor. I am proud of everything i have done this module as i have done things i didn't think i could well and i feel i have done them well and achieved a lot.  

Group Blog

My group:  Lauren Whymark and Alexandra Ryder
this is the Link to Our blog

http://laifmediawork.blogspot.com/

Liner & Non Linear Thrillers and Omniscient & Restricted Thrillers

Liner

Liner thriller films are simple they are understanding and have a basic beginning, middle and ending. 

An example of this is Children story's as it is very basic an easy to read and understanding.

Non liner

A Non Liner film is where the audience has no idea of what is going on, from the beginning the film is not simple it is all mixed up and confusing the director does this to entice the audience, to continue watching the film and find out what is going on. This creates Mystery. 

The example we was shown was the begging of the film 'Memento'

Omniscient 

This give the audience an 'God' like prospective on the film, as they know what will happen in the film as they have seen it set before it happens. This creates suspence and a build up for the audience.

Restricted 

This is were the audience has no aware of what is going on and what will happen in the surroundings of  the film, they only know what is happening there and then. when something dratic happens this creates shock and the audience question what is going on and what just happened. 

'Lock,Stock pocker game'

Today in lesson we had to look at a clip from 'Lock,Stock pocker game'. A 1min 53 seconds of a sequence we had to follow, and chose what still parts we will copy for our clips of this. We chose 9 still chose to copy and shot in this order.

This is a story board of what we will be doing 

First we will do a close up, still shot of the cards on the tables

 

Then we will do a close up on each of the characters that are playing

After that we will do a mid shot of both characters faces. To show the emotion of them both.

  

Close up of the winners cards being laid

  

Still eye shot of the losers eyes

                                  

close up of the losers cards

      

close up on both the winner and losers faces

  

       

Our video sequence 

                                   

I learned from this task to use editing on final cut and how to use a camera without breaking the 3 continuity rules.

History Of Thrillers

Alfred Hitchcock was the first man to make a thriller film. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres.

• North By Northwest
• Vertigo 
• Rare Window

These films are the 3 most important thrillers made by Hitchock

The Theme Hitchcock usually used in his films where punishment of breaking social rules and normally a blond woman gets punished in his films or dies. 

3x of Continuity

Match on Action 
Match on action is a continuity of movements in a shot. Its a natural flow and has no dramatic jumping in the camera shots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR3LXTIKfTM&feature=BFa&list=PL22CC39425E9FBDC5&lf=results_main

Shot Revers Shot 

This is when the camera is looking at one person at a time then flicks to another person (like in a conversation).

The shots are normally over the shoulder shots. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLkUHZ1qips

180 Degree Rule

The camera needs at a certain angle, with one character on one side and another on the other side. When the camera is at this angle it can not change, if it does the characters look like they are on the wrong side and does not make sense. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckPbSwV0l3Y  

From this information i know how to use Match on action, Shot revers shot and 180 degrees rule. I will be able to film my thriller film correctly as i know the rules. 

Thriller Plot

My First Idea

A group teenagers receive a phone call one night and they soon encounter a serial killer has been stalking them a sleepover turns into a nightmare as the teenagers have to strive for their lives to get away from a murdering mystery stalker.


This gets me thinking about the type of plots i can have for our thriller so when we shot we know exactly what we are doing and where our story will go

'Enemy Of The State' Opening Scene

What i see

• CCTV shots
• Surveillance - top secret this creates a mystery of why are they showing this
• Tracking and Tracing 
• Computer, Phone sounds
• Theme = Surveillance 

This makes the audience look for clues for a connection between the links


What makes it a thriller? 


Costume

• Long black coats = Mystery and threat
• The old man in a jucks position so his a Good/Bad person
• Gloves= Sign of a crime

Setting 

•  At a lake early in the morning its still isolated with nobody around.

Props

• The needle
• Tablets to cover up the murder = this creates mystery and makes you think there is something more behind this murder 
• Black car
• Dog

Sound

• The Music comes on when the tension builds up and when the murder is about to be done

Essential Elements and Key Elements For Thiller

Essential Elements

• Characters 
• Location
• Stage directions
• Colours
• Lighting

This creates questions with no answers

Key Elements 

• Murders
• Police
• Investigators
• Props- Knifes, guns, blood ect

This helps me understand what i need to put into a thriller film so that it is actually a thriller and will make sense more than a horror like film, as they are quite similar and people can get mixed up.

Visual Effects For the start to create mystery and suspense

• No Dialog 
• Setting
• Colours
• Sound
• Camera shots
• Editing
• Mise-en-scence
• Introduction on characters 

This helps me know the type of effects i should use in my opening. So when i am editing the film i know properly the type of visual effects to use. 

Casino Royal

Elements that are included in the design of the opening Sequence  


In my group we focused on casino royal and looked at the design of the opening sequence and explained what we saw and what it means.
http://www.artofthetitle.com/2008/01/14/casino-royale/ 

9 screen shots 

Image

• Animated effect 
• The main character is animated also the victims are  
• the blood, and weapons are all card suites like hearts, spaids ect

Style

• Bright colours

Visual Effects 

• Black and White beginning of man getting shot 
• Card Suits for the effects of patterns and bullets 
• The gun aiming targets turn into casino spinning wheels 

Font

• Simple white font 

Animation of the title 

• The titles don't move when they appear 

Editing 

• They fade in and out

What this means?

They have made this opening scene like this so the audience know it will be based for a casino. The character at the begging is shown in life then in animation, you know straight away that it will be the main character the spy (James bond). The gun aiming targets turn into casino spinning wheels tell you that something is going to happen in the casino, but you don't know what and why. This helps me understand that the title sequence tells a short story and sets the mood of the film, this will help me when shooting so that i know the key elements to put into my film to give the right effect and set the mood and atmosphere.