Production Schedule: Sunday 15th January

Weather check

We will be filming Wednesday 11th January and Sunday 15th January.
We will be filming at two different locations, in Connie's Nan's bathroom and in public toilets in Dartford, here is the weather check for both days.

The weather is suitable for both days however we will be inside for most of the day at Connie's nan's house, so it would be as much of a problem, however we will be in Dartford, outside for most of the day on the Wednesday, therefore we need to be careful as we will have expensive equipment and we need to ensure our shots are in continuity.

Animatic Storyboard

Here is a link to our animatic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZIaWe5IEMY&feature=youtu.be

The storyboard has helped our group because it has shown us what our film will look like, what shot it where and how long the shots will be and if this looks ok.

Call Sheet

Se7en Interpretation

After watching the opening title sequence of Se7en, we used pictures we were given to make our own interpretation of the Se7en sequence, using surveillance. This is a practice as we used Final Cut Pro to put the pictures in order, get the timings how we wanted them so they fitted the sequence and we added the music from Se7en into our project. Also, we added effects to make our opening title as similar to the Se7en opening as possible.

Production Schedule

Vox Pops: Audience Expectations of a Thriller.

Here is my finished video of Vox Pops, the questions in which were asked were the following:
1) How old are you? I chose to ask 15 to 25 year olds as from researching thriller audiences in class, I found out the majority of people who watch thrillers fit this age range.

2) What are you expectations of a thriller film?
3) What is your favourite thriller film?

From my findings I found that most of the people I asked expected a thriller to have mystery, suspense and an enticing storyline. Plus, the majority preferred newer thriller films, which I believe is down to the updated, modern storylines and effects on the films.

Storyboard Animatic

We have created a storyboard animatic so that it gives us a clearer idea of how our film will look.

Titles Map:

To make sure that our filming goes productively we need to ensure we know exactly what we are doing. This is why we made a titles map which will show us how many seconds we need to film each shot for, where the shots will be edited to and to see how smoothly our story-line runs.

This is our Titles Map:

Vox Pops: Audience Expectations of a Thriller.

Tomorrow I plan to interview people between the ages of 15 to 25 as that is the target audience of my group's thriller. I shall be filming my interviews tomorrow between 12.15 until 2.15 in order to get a varied sample of answers. I am aiming to interview at least 5 people for this. I will be posting the video after I have completed my task.

Shot for shot: Final Opening Sequence.

To make filming a little easier i have made a shot for shot guide of what will happen in our sequence, This will make doing the storyboard and the titles map easier also:


Shot 1- Eye (ECU).
Shot 2-Washing Make-up off from eye (MS).
Shot 3- Pan camera to tag on arm (ECU).
Shot 4- Wipes lips (ECU).
Shot 5- Bathroom (ES).
Shot 6- Looks in mirror (OSS).
Shot 7- Girl plays with hair, looks down (OSS).
Shot 8- Sink, hair fall (CU).
Shot 9- Bending over sink, rises up (LS).
Shot 10- Girl plays with hair, Looks at ID (MS).
Shot 11- ID Close up pans until put in pocket (CU).
Shot 12- Girl smiles in  mirror, goes to hit mirror (MS).
Shot 13- Mirror breaks (CU).

Ident/logo is shown.

14: Top of ceiling (ECU).
15- Water dripping in bucket (CU).
16- Starts at body pans up (CU-LS) (Pull focus shot).
17- Toilets public (ES)
18- Girl kneeling over body, stands, walks (LS).
19. Feet walking (CU)
20- Sink (ES).
21- Blood washing off of hands (CU).
22- Looks in mirror, rubs face (MS).
23- Puts on lipstick (ECU).
24. Puts on mascara (ECU).
25- Takes top off (MCU).
26- See trousers go down (CU).
27- Put clothes in plastic bag (LS).
28- Puts weapon in plastic bag (CU).
29- Takes identity out of pocket (LS).
30- Identity (CU)
31- Puts identity in bag (MS).
32- Shoves bag in corner (LS)
33-Walks out, opens door (OSS)
34- Seen in doorway, camera follows backwards as girl is walking (MS).
35- From back, walks into distance (OSS) (LS).

CU= Close-up
ECU= Extreme close-up
MS= Mid-shot
MCU= Mid close-up
OSS= Over the shoulder shot.
LS= Long-shot
ES= Establishing-shot

Communications: Actors.

In order to film our sequence we have to find some actors. I asked my friend Ben King to play the detective by text.

This is the exact conversation:

Katie: ''Ben, will you act in our media Thriller opening sequence? We're filming over the 14th and 15th of January. You'd be needed for two days, a rehearsal day and a shooting day?"

Ben: "What do you need me to do?"

Katie: "I need you to act as a detective, who has been shot. The locations are in West hill and Central Dartford."

Ben: "Sure, of course i will"

Katie:"Thank you! I will inform you when I find out the times"

Permission for locations:

As part of planning we have to get permission to film in the locations we have chosen.

I have been given verbal permission by the owner of the bathroom to be able to shoot in it providing that we do no damage or stain any other the counters ect. Permission agreement given by Carole Veal on the 11th January 2012. Any damaged equipment must be replaced.

This is the bathroom:

Test shots:

When planning our final Thriller opening we needed to get photo's of the actors we will be using. In the opening scene we are introduced to two of the main characters. Here are the photo's of the actors: 


Actor 1- Detective:

Actor 2- Psycho Girl:

I choose Actor 1 to play the detective as he looks very business-like in a suit which suits the character. The actor's name is Ben and he also has a lot of previous acting experience.

I chose Actor 2 to play psycho-girl because she has scary eyes and in our sequence there is a emphasis on the eyes. She looks rather old which is bonus because the characters are in there mid 20's. I know that Actor 1 who's name is Connie has lots of previous acting experience which is important when making our sequence look professional.

Match On Action:

Match On Action:

As Group work we has to each take a task to write about. I chose to write about Match on action.

Match on action is vital to producing a great film. We learnt into todays lesson (26.09.11) that with out match on action, also know as ''Match Cutting'' or ''Graphic match'' our audience will grow frustrated and confused which will distracted them from the story behind the film.
    match on action is when two shots are cut to make sure that they ''flow''  together. this is linked to continuity because the idea is to make sure that the film looks true to life.
  And example of good match on action is presented on the youtube link below. in this scene there are two different shots which have been cut in order to give the the appearance that the scene is flowing and that there was not a cut between the scenes.  
   Match on action can also be used in other scenes such as a conversation. In one shot we could have character talking to another with and over the shoulder from said character. then, when the other character replies there could be another over the shoulder shot but of that character looking at the other.


Here is a example of match on action:

Connie.

Reservoir Dogs: Script.

In order the to film the title sequence from Reservoir Dogs we needed to needed to plan out what was happening in every shot and the about of seconds the shot lasted. This task was hand written for practicality, we took it on the shoot with us in order to know which shot we were filming.
Whilst doing this we writing this we also figured out what the shot list was and what props were needed.
The actors provided some of the props as did connie.

Here is the script we made:

Communication for Reservoir Dogs Remake

I sent out a Facebook event to boys who I thought may be able to help the group to film the remake to see who would be around for filming.

BBFC Research

Communication for Parity remake

 As Mem would be unable to make the date we had set, I decided to ask Liam to see if him would come back after school on monday night to be in the clip.

Liam was ill this day and was therefore unable to participate, Connie then acted as the dead body instead. 

Thriller Production Company Research

http://www.coffeefilms.com/content.html

Coffee Films first began in 1996, following on the Naked Pony company which no longer runs. Naked Pony's main theatre was based in South East England. They then spirelled up to creating documentaries on music and wildlife. They are currently producing; Lucid a psychological drama/thriller and lots of different wildlife projects working with international broadcasters. The company hopes to be successful for a long time.

Partnerships

Coffee Films have been involved with and completed lots of different films since they have been up and running. They like to experiment with technique, style, genre and the medium of moving images mainly. Their aim is to be diverse.

Example of a short Indie Thriller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOnKzNghZho

They have also made films which are not thrillers such as



a drama

And a doccumentary

And a music doccumentary

Shot Reverse Shot

Reservoir Dogs Remake

Roles of the remake

Katie: Directed and communicated with the actors, Titles Map, Filmed
Connie: Directed, Titles Map
Chloe: Edited, shot list

Parity Remake

Our Re-make of Parity

Roles of the group:

Editing and Camera: Katie
Directing: Chloe
Acting/Directing: Connie

http://www.youtube.com/user/GirlsGroupThriller/videos

Sub-genre's of a thriller:

The Sub-Genres of a Thriller:

In taking a deeper look into the thriller genre we see that there “sub-genres”. This is a way of identifying the content of a film. There are characteristics which form the genre of a Thriller for example the use of blood, violence and typically the audience will be kept in suspense, not know how the plot will thicken etc. Yet, certain details in a thriller can picked out and used to form a sub-genre. These are used to associate different thrillers with her, with mutual elements such as plot ect.

I used www.wikipedia .com to research these sun-genres. Please note that sub-genre’s within thrillers may have elements and characteristics of other genre’s such as horror, yet are still classified as a thriller. The sub-genres are as follows:

Action Thriller: Action thrillers often have elements of mystery and crime films. They are full of action, contains large elaborate sets, explosions and guns. There is often a time element to them, with fare-fetched scenarios such as there is two minutes to stop a mars bar from derailing a train, with energetic, strong and ambitious male characters saving the day. For example “James Bond” (see below).

Conspiracy Thriller: Often containing a Heroic character who challenges the darker side. The storylines are mostly political, with beliefs that there may be more to an event than meet the eye, an example would be “Fight Plan” (See below).

Crime Thriller: This genre is extremely hard to place as there is a very fine line as to what is a thriller and as to what is a crime film.  Usually these films are crime films with an added suspense or mystery to a failed crime. They are commonly filmed from the criminals point of view. They focus on actions as oppose to the psychological side of a criminal. The commonly include murders, robberies, shoot-outs ect. For example “Seven” (see below).

Eco-Thriller: The main conflict in these thrillers is due to a disaster whether it be true to life or Science-fiction. Floods, earthquakes and nuclear disasters are all possible storylines. The science fiction element to these, often consist of storylines about problems that may occur in the future.  An example and Eco-Thriller is “In The Blue” (see below).

Erotic Thriller: These thrillers are a mix of the typical characteristics of a thriller and erotica. Becoming more popular since the 1980’s, this genre includes “Fatal Attraction” (see below).

Horror Thriller: These thrillers contain conflict between characters which is mental/emotional and physical. There is also a very fine line between what is a thriller and what is a horror as most horrors have a sense of the “unknown” which is most common in Thrillers. The main elements throughout a Horror thriller are fear and mystery. There is often a superior being or force which the main character has to outsmart, the main characters commonly become victims at one point or another. An example is “28 Days Later” (see below).

Psychological Thriller: commonly, the conflict between main characters is mental and emotional as oppose to physical. A person may have a mental defect or is mentally unhinged causing them to act the way they do. “The Orphan” is an example of this (see below).

Supernatural Thriller: Characters in a supernatural thriller often have abnormal powers of some sort. These thrillers combined the tension accosted with a normal thriller but with added horror aspects such as ghosts and other such phenomenon. An example of such film would be “Carrie” (see below).

Connie.

Recce: Location One.

As part of our planning we were asked to take photo's of the locations were are using for our final opening sequence. The first location is a bathroom. I have taken photographs of the key parts of the bathroom being filmed. The corner. Where the woman will dress and the mirror is where the woman will transform. 


Here are the pictures:

The location has plug sockets just out side the room which can be used for camera charging.
Just out side the door of the room, where the second picture is taken there is enough space to be able to film without capturing any wall ect this is good because the camera can be outside the room, leaving enough space for actors to act ect. This will be productive when filming the scenes with Psycho-girl in the mirror as the camera will not be seen.

This is a residentual bathroom which with a few probs like travel sized complimentarys can be changed to look like a hotle.

There is also a kitchen in this house that can be used for refreshments which i will provide. Tea, coffee ect this is important as we will need to keep actors energy levels up in order for them to perform well.

There is a seperate toilet that the owners of the house/cast/crew can use so that they are not inperupting filiming time.

the lighting is good and the titles are easily wiped which means that there is not a great risk in staining anything.

The bathroom has a good morder feel which will make our film look professional.

There is a spare room in the house which can be used by the cast and crew as a costume/make-up department and can also be used to store equipment without being damaged.

Group Meeting: Thursday 1st December

Connie and Katie are working on The Usual Suspects: Title tagging, whereas Chloe is editing the shots from the remake using Final Cut Pro.