22nd Februaury 2010 - Actors, Costumes and Props.

The actors we have chose are Sam Willis as the "Stalker" character and Ashley Grantham as the "Indie Kid" character. We have chosen these two people to act in our thriller as they both match the physical qualities of character, Sam being tall and having quite long hair. where as Ashley has a smaller build and the hair that we are looking for. They also both take media so know that they cant mess about and must act professional at all times.

This is Sam Willis:



This Is Ashley Grantham:



Sam's character "Stalker" will be wearing a Long Wool trench coat , Jeans, Boots. The items blow are clothing that shows what we mean, however they may not be identical to the final items used in film.

Ashely's Character will be wearing: Jeans, Hoodie, Trainers and a Flat peak hat.The items blow are clothing that shows what we mean, however they may not be identical to the final items used in film.

Ashley will have to use props, however so far we have decided he only needs headphones.

12th February 2010 - Character and Characteristics of Thriller Research

This blog is a bit late, but i thought it should be uploaded as it shows some extra research i did into the Thriller genre. Not only did i watch and write about the openings of Monster and Bourne Ultimatum, but i also researched the characters and characteristics that can be found in a thriller:

Characters

Characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitous individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more.

The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger: law enforcement officers, spies, soldiers, seamen or aviators. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common.

Women are often the victims and are seen to be weak while the killers or villain are often men. The Villain is either doing what he does for : Revenge, Love, Loss, Mental Issues or self identity.

Characteristics

Thrillers are often hybrids - there are suspense-thrillers, action- or adventure- thrillers, sci-fi thrillers (such as Alien (1979)), crime-caper thrillers (such as The French Connection (1971)), western-thrillers (such as High Noon (1952)), film-noir thrillers (such as Double Indemnity (1944)), even romantic comedy-thrillers (such as Safety Last (1923)).

The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder.

16th February 2010 - Location & Area

Today, Oliver and I went to find a suitable location to film our thriller project. we had some ideas about where taking it, but came to the conclusion that toton Sidings woodland paths would be the best option. We came to this decision as there is lots of trees and bushes down this area with a clear path leading through them. there are many sections of paths down this area so can incorporate more than one into the clip. These are some images below detailing the type of landscape that we are going to be shooting on.

This image shows the path with a slight curve, this is the most suitable location for filming the stalker character at the beginning of the clip ( see Storyboard).

We have chosen the rest of the piece to be shot at this location on the path as it is long an straight which will allow us to get both characters on shot and have the effect we want shown on the storyboard.

This is the area where we will incorporate the two shot of the characters meeting each other as there is a bank on the left had side that will allow us to get some height over the characters like it is in our story board, if we don't like the look of this shot however, we will use the area in image 2, but raise the camera high enough for the effect we want.

12th February 2010 - Story Board and Research

Today, Oliver and I have created are Story board based on the feed back we got from out questionnaire. We asked a total of 20 students at our college so that we could reach our target audience of teenagers, we then looked at the answers and analysed the results.

To analyse the results, Oliver created them all pie charts visually displaying out results. Oliver did these results while I started drawing out the story board, we collaborated our ideas when Oliver was making the graphs to save us valuable time , We chose pie charts as they can be easily read and shows clearly what the most popular answer was.

These where our results:

This shows that the majority of people would prefer the location to based in a woodlands area.



Most people asked want the thriller to be set in the afternoon.

Most people believe that there should be 2 characters in the opening of our thriller.



The majority of people would like a stalker storyline in a thriller.



Most people would suspense music and ambient sounds to be used in our thriller.



The vast majority of students asked would prefer the thriller to be shot in naturalistic lighting.



The vast majority would like the actors in the film to be male.



Props and costumes that people wanted to be include were dark clothing, mysterious objects and contrasting costumes.



The majority of people would prefer there not to be speech in the opening of a thriller.

85% of people would prefer the colour used to be dark and mysterious than bright.

These results gave us a clear view of what people wanted to see in out thriller opening, this included, a stalker like character, naturalistic lighting and ambient and and suspense music. therefore we based these in our story board.

After we did this, i started creating the story board.

This is our story board as a Movie to show what is happening more clearly and make it more realistic:

While I was finishing making the storyboard, Oliver started creating the risk assessment, one I had finished the story board, i then helped him with this. These where the different risks we cam up with that might affect us when we where filming.

Risk Assessment

Falling over (Injuring self or breaking equipment) - To prevent this be careful with the equipment and try to film in safe flatter areas.

Other People - Try and film in an area that is not too busy.

Weather - If raining avoid filming due to electrical products and danger to students.

Multi-Level Location - Danger of people falling, so try and work in flat areas.

Poor Lighting - use lights if dark so people can see and don't runt he risk of falling over or getting lost.

Equipment being stolen - Never leave equipment unattended.

12th February 2010 - Thriller Research - The Bourne Ultamatium

The Bourne Ultimatum

Sound:
The clip starts with soft music gradually getting louder and faster to build up suspense, this keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat and then, sharply the music becomes loud and stops with a clean cut to the music not dying out at all.

We hear Bourne panting allot at the beginning of the film, this makes the views think he is either out of breath or wounded, we then hear the diegetic sounds of the sirens and the skidding tyres’ of the police cars adding a dynamic and action effect to the thriller.

Once inside the building, we here broken glass that adds a scary effect as it is loud and worrying.

Camera:
The camera uses a mid shot at the beginning to capture Bournes whole body; this allows us to see the surroundings behind him and allows us to see the types of clothing he is wearing. We then change to a close up allowing us to see the blood and sweat on his face; this gets the audience on their seat as they want to know what’s happening. The camera then stops as a pan takes place seeing the police cars and Bourne disappearing into the train station.
When the flash back occurs, the camera becomes jittery and handheld showing a montage of the shots when he was younger. These shots are mainly close ups to show the distress and emotions on his face. However there are midshot to allow us to see the clothing he was wearing showing us he was in the army.

Editing:
The sequence mainly consist of cuts and quick editing as it is very fast paced and keeps in touch with he flow of the camera angles and sounds used. When the flash back occurs the editing is extremely fast and jittery, there is a blue tint to the screen to show he is looking back on his past.

While the two men are talking a shot reverse shot is used to show the reactions on each of the man’s faces, this shows the nervousness the policeman has when he is up against Bourne and the sweat running down on his face.

Mise-en-scene:
The setting used is a busy street; this shows that there is hustle and bustle on the street and how he is trying to get away. There is snow in the back ground making it earlier as we do not know where he is. We see he is wearing a trench coat that suggests he is trying to hide or console something.

We also see that there is a police uniform this shows that something is going on as they are trying to run after and catch him. Once inside the building high key lighting is used this makes it look bright and unnatural as to where he is. We see he is carrying a gun and is taking drugs to stop him bleeding. When in the flash back we see him in an army uniform this shows that he is a trained killer and has experience of war.

12th February 2010 - Thriller Research - Monster

Monster

Sound:
At the beginning of the film, the main character narrators the montage of images dictating her life with soft music sound bridging over the images, in the background of when she was younger, this tells us the main storey in reverse and speaks about how she was trying to for fill the American dream.

However when this is half way though, the soft music stops and it swaps to loud heavy rain that is falling on the ground around here. Here we also hear the diegetic sound of cars passing and honking of horns, she is still narrating, but the other sounds are extremely loud.
Once she has gone into the club, we here pop music in the background, however this is soft and barley hear able when dialogue is being spoken. The main characters voice is rustic and rough, and when she speaks to another woman who has a soft voice, she swears.

Camera:
At the beginning, there are mid shot and close ups showing what she used to look like when she was younger, these depict what her life was like, the last shot in the montage changes however to a long shot of here being picked up by a car when she is walking on a highway. This shows us that she is alone and basically a prostitute.
When she is sitting under the bridge and we here the rain, we have a close up shot on her face, showing that she is unhappy and how the rain is falling down here face as she has no coat or hood. it then swaps to a close up shot of a gun in her hand showing she is suicidal and that she has a weapon.

When she comes in the club, we see a mid shot of the people in the club and then here, this compares the people to here and how put of place she looks being in a place like it is where she obviously doesn't belong.

Editing:
The only editing used in the sequence is quick cuts that are both in the montage at the beginning and though out the real time section, these are used to show she is fast paces and always does things she wants first.

Mise-en-scene:
Old tatty cloths are used in the film, this shows that the women comes from a poor background which she wanted to try and get away from so she tried to follow the American dream. We also see a gun near the beginning of the film, it is old and rusty showing it is very old and she only has it to take her own life. She smokes and drinks in the sequence suggesting she is unhealthy and trying to forget about the things she has done or she is addicted to things and tried to make herself feel better.

Naturalistic lighting is used in the sequence and shadows are very visible, showing she may be trying to hide something.

8th February 2010 - Thriller Planning

In today's lesson, the class began to split into groups. In my group the is Oliver Burrows and I, we decided to work in this group as we both have the same target grades and find it easier to work in a smaller group as there is less contrast in opinions and views.

The first stage of the planning process was brainstorming out ideas, we did this together as we shared our different views on what we could do and what we each thought would make a good thriller opening. We split the brainstorm into two pieces the first had connotations about : Sound, Time, Location, Costume, props and characters on. The other had, Actors, Story, Colour and title.

These are our story boards:

Once we had finished brainstorming, we moved as a group to creating and thing of questions that could be asked on our questionnaire, we decided out target audience would be late teenagers and young adults. This questionnaire consists of 10 questions seen below with multiple choice answers:

1. What would be the best location for a thriller opening?:
• Woodlands
• City
• Indoors

2. What time of day should it be set?:
• Early Morning
• Afternoon
• Night

3. How many characters would be suitable?:
• 1
• 2
• 3+

4. What type of storyline?:
• Stalker
• Romance
• Revenge
• Unprovoked

5. What type of sounds?:
• Suspense
• Diegetic
• Non-diegetic
• Ambient

6. Lighting?:
• High key
• Naturalistic

7. Actors?:
• Male
• Female

8. Possible props and costumes that could be used?:

9. Should speech be used?:
• Yes
• No

10. What colours could be used?:

We chose these questions as we thought these questions would give us the best idea of what the audience would want to see in a thriller opening. It will allow us to know if they prefer to have speaking in the opening of if they want a silence with diegetic sounds in the shot.

The next step we did this lesson was created a filming schedule which shows when we are going to film the shots, where we are going to film the shots, what costumes we are going to need on the day and what filming equipment and other props we would need. We did this so we could see what we were meant to be doing each day while filming so we where not to loose or waste any time we could use filming.

This was out filming schedule:

Filming time - Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th February

Location - Toton Sidings

Time - Mid-afternoon

Equipment - DV Camera, DVF tape, Tripod

Actors - Sam Willis and Ashley Grantham

Costume - Stalker Character: Long black Coat, Jeans, Boots
Indie Kid: Hoodie, Flat peak, Jeans, Trainers

Props - Headphones and Bag

Both characters will be present on the day of filming as we need them both in some of the sots. We should be able to get all necessary shots take over this weekend, however we have allowed ourselves to use the following week to film any more shots we need.

1st February 2010 - Thriller Descrpition / Research

In today's lesson, the groups we where put into have now been split up and we focused what a thriller actually is and contains. we did this buy watching the opening scenes of three different movies, these being: Lost Highway, Signs, Blood Simple. We then wrote down conventions we saw in each thriller and talked about it as a class. After we discussed the thrillers we then new what made a good thriller and what can usually be seen in a thriller. We then started watching the thriller, The Usual Suspects.

Next lesson - 7th February 2010

This lesson we will finish watching the usual suspects, and discuss what we think as a class. this helps us on how we should lay our thriller out and what we need to do in it.