My Final Edit

This is the final edit of my thriller opening sequence, entitled "Ululate".

Final Evaluation

Media Evaluation

My media product is the opening sequence to a film of the thriller genre. My group and I decided to take the conventions of existing thrillers such as David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and Joel Coen’s Fargo, and use them to create an original, inventive idea of our own.

Both the opening sequences to Fargo and Mulholland Drive have strong themes of ambiguity within them, and this is something I wanted to be present in my opening sequence, as it is a theme behind many thrillers. It poses questions and draws in audience interest, like in the clip below from the opening of Mulholland Drive. The dancing on the plain purple background (pictured) is unusual, and holds no real narrative. It makes the audience question what is occurring. I decided to take the idea of posing a question, and use it with darkness, to give the hooded, walking character a sense of ambiguity. The opening of Fargo does the same, as it is plain, basic, and poses many questions regarding what is happening. Therefore my product uses already typical conventions of the thriller genre, and develops them rather than challenges them, to create a darker sense of ambiguity.

Because it is only the opening sequence of the film, and one of the main themes behind it was ambiguity, my clip does not aim to present or represent any sort of social class or social groups. This means that the character seen in the clip could be of any social class, which also helps to create a host of storylines that could be continued from this clip. It also helps to immediately draw in a wider target audience, as many different people from different social classes and groups. However, it is evident that the character is male, and that they are of a youngish age, as he is very brisk in the manner he walks. The clothing he wears, plain black, with a hooded top, also carry the connotations that the character could be a teenager or young adult, as 'hoodies' have become associated with this age group. Hooded tops have also become associated with thug culture, and this carries the connotations that this could be a thugish, unwanted, perhaps even villanous character. The below picture demonstrates the way in which the hooded top could give off these impressions.

The kind of institution that would distribute my company would be WarpX. This because WarpX works to harness low budget technologies and methods to distribute small films all over the world. This would work well with my film because I am not well known in the film industry, and WarpX look to aid new and exciting prospects such as film writers and directors, and also because my film could be filmed on a low budget, perhaps even lower than their typical £400,000-£800,000 budgets. It would also be a good company to aid me in my distribution process, as they are based locally, with offices in my hometown of Nottingham, and work with EM Media, who are based in my region of the East Midlands.

The certificate for my film would most probably be a 15, as some of the ideas that I have to continue on from the opening sequence are quite gorey and scary. Therefore, my film would target an audience aged 15 and upwards, but more specifically to around late 2o's, as the thriller genre has, over recent years, become increasingly popular with this age group. It has become even more popular with the men in this age group, so I therefore believe that they would be the sex more likely to enjoy it, even thought women could as well. This is because, stereotypically, men like fast paced action films, which could compose part of my film, but also like gorey, disguisting types of films such as 'Saw'. An example of two people, male and female, from this age group, were Hannah and Jordan from my media class, and I decided to get feedback from them.

I planned to attract this target audience through ambiguity, and a scary soundtrack, and perhaps weird camera shots. This is because I wanted the idea of the film being scary and weird to be put across almost immediately, and for it to also force the audience to ask questions about it, making them want to watch the rest of the film.

Hannah and Jordan both watched it, and said that they enjoyed the film. Hanah said 'I found the music went well with the interesting combination of video shots. It really gave it an eerie and creepy feel.' Jordan said 'I thought it was interesting, but also left a lot of questions on my mind such as "Who is the man walking?" and "Why is he walking?". That would definitely draw me in and leave me wanting to continue watching the film.'

I was very happy with this audience feedback as I felt it achieved my aims in attracting the audience to the film. This is demonstrated as the questions show there was a sense of ambiguity, and the audience found it creepy and eeire, something I was aiming to achieve.

Throughout the project, I have used a series of new software programmes, and also a video camera. Before the project, I was not very good at using video cameras, but now, I feel confident in using them. I know how to record, zoom, and also adjust colour, brightness, and other things. I also learned how to sort the white balance, which makes the colour as normal as possible. I also found new and different ways to use reason, a programme I was not previously too familiar with. This could help me in the future, for example perhaps in A2 Media projects, or in later life depending on the career path I decide to undertake. I also became more accomplished in using Adobe Premier Pro. I now understand how to use it in a variety of ways, and also how to add effects such as fades, dissolves, and adding titles, to make my film seem more authentic.

Looking back on the Preliminary task, I have learnt many lessons. I now realise that it is not just the visual, but also the audio contributions of the film that are key and essential, especially in making an ambiguous opening sequence to fit the thriller genre. The sound must be smooth, and sound layering such as effects over natural ambience can create the perfect sound you want. I also learnt that picking who I work with is essential, as the conflicts I encountered in my preliminary group hindered our progress heavily.

How I created the music/noises used in our piece.

The programme that I used to create the sound on our project, other than the sound captured by the video camera, was Reason.
The programme features an extensive selection of sample instruments I was available to use, and also a selection of extra features that allowed me to manipulate the sound of the instruments.
To create the music I spent a period of time browsing through the samplers, and finding different instruments that I thought could sound good accompanying what we had already filmed. Once I had found the instrument I felt mirrored the theme and mood we wanted our thriller to convey, I opened it in the sequencer window, where I was able to preview different notes using an integrated piano that scrolled the side of the sequencer. When I found notes I liked, I drew them in the sequencer in a sequence, stretching them out at different lengths for a disjointed and erratic effect.

DRAFT

Blog catch up.

Wednesday 4th March

Today was a really productive lesson. After overcoming the first problem presented to myself, which was the fact my mp3 files had not been allowed through on the email, by emailing the IT department requesting the files to be sent through, which they then were, Ben and I captured our filming, and put it on our T-Drive. On the T-Drive was the best place, as we can now both access the clips. We have and will be saving all our work that has potential to be in our final production onto the T-Drive, to make sure we can both access our work. Following the capturing process, we sat down, discussed and finalised ideas, and began working on the very opening sequence. I began to design the logo for "Alien Films" towards the end of the lesson, as well as checking the mp3 files I had sent sounded good.

Monday 9th March

Today, myself and Ben continued with our work. I made good progress with some of the clips, and have now developed a backing track which includes the sound of our character walking, and the traffic. It sounds flawless, which I am very happy with. I also got some more clips added to the sequence. I finished the "Alien Films" logo and put it onto the sequence and it looks good with the dissolve in and out from it. I used a font from www.dafont.com and edited using the programme Macromedia Fireworks. I got the size right by checking the size of our video clips on Adobe Premier pro, the tool being used for the video editing, and being used along side Adobe Audition to edit and manipulate our audio files. Ben also edited some clips and sound, and produced the "Badman Butch Productions" logo using the same process i used for "Alien Films"

Wednesday 11th March

Ben was absent to day for justified reasons. I cracked on with the editing. I manipulated the weird noises I had created at home on Reason using Adobe Audition, playing around with different ideas and effects to get something I felt reflected the mood and tone of our sequence. I did the same thing to some of our video clips using Adobe Premier Pro. I also added more to our sequence, and the opening 40 seconds are now near perfect. I am really happy with how I worked independently and work efficiently as the project is now nearing completion, and is on course to meet the deadline that has been set, Thursday 19th January.

Filming

On Monday night, the filming went really well. We managed to get some really good shots we are really happy with. We filmed numerous takes, which will enable us to choose the best shots for our thriller. Last night (tuesday) I also made the static and other sounds we will be using on Reason. After emailing them in, the school IT team or their programme have found them as suspicious so I will be contacting them to allow it to send through.

Monday 2nd March Lesson

Due to other serious engagements concerning other courses and personal life, Ben and I began filming today, behind schedule. We filmed in lesson the second part of the clip, with the white lights and shadowed figure. We spent time experimenting with lights provided by school, and also different backgrounds and backdrops, including the schools green screen. In the end, we found and used a white screen used for projecting images on. We focused on the lights with high contrast, so we had a solid and pure white background, and placed the screen in front. Behind this we created shadowy and blurry figures, that looked abnormal and strange as the heads moved and disappeared and changed shape. We are really pleased with the takes we recorded, and are impressed at the figures we made, as they are better than we hoped for, as they have what I would describe as an Alien like quality, adding to the ambiguity. This evening we are going to location to shoot our final scenes needed for the first section of the clip (the scene following the hooded figure) with Sam. Doing this will put us in command of our time, as we will be back on schedule to edit our clip in lesson on Wednesday. Whilst being at home this evening, I have created a sound clip of static which we will be using, and also some abstract sounds we will use to create a creepy effect in our clip.

Research and Planning for final task.

The following is all of the research Ben and myself conducted in preparation for the filming and editing of our final task.

Brainstorming

• 2 minutes long
• Dark, ambiguous sequence
• Perhaps black and white for dramatic effect
• Someone walking
• Climax, suspense building up to something that occurs at the end
• Eerie music
• Abstract and weird sequence, potentially unconventional
• Cuts to disturbed and grotesque images
• Physchological thriller
• A lot of editing

Our storyboard

This is our storyboard, as an animatic (at the bottom of this post). It depicts a rough idea of how we would like our piece to turn out. It follows a dark, hooded character walking to a dark, derelict building. Everything is ambiguous, and the audience know little about what they see. We see 3 grotesque still images. It then cuts to black, and fades up to white. A heartbeat is heard, which slowly increases in pace, as it fades in and out of focus on a blurred black figure on a plain white background, until the climax and the titles can be seen. Throughout the clip, constant static can be heard, and random noises, perhaps a slight tune can be heard. All music and sound will be recorded by myself and Ben, or created using the music programme Reason. (Storyboard to be added at home as will no upload at school)

Analysis of questionnaire
Ben and myself created the following questionnaire:

Questionnaire – please tick next to the answer that applies to you for each question.

What sex are you?
Male
Female

How old are you?
10-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-40
40+

What genre of film do you watch the most?
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Horror
Romance
Thriller
Other

How often do you watch thrillers? (Tick which closest applies)
Once a week
Once a month
Twice a month
Rarely

What draws you into watching a thriller? (Tick as many as you wish)
Characters
Settings
Plots
Suspense
Intrigue

What was the last thriller you watched?

How important is the opening of a thriller to you?

What do you expect from the opening of a thriller?

We found 20 people in our school and college, and asked them if they would fill out our questionnaires. From our 2 results, around 80% of those who we asked enjoyed watching thrillers, even if it was not their preferred genre of film. We also found out that key attractions of a thriller are suspense and intrigue, and so we will look to use those within our clip. We have also realised that suspense is needed in the opening sequence of a thriller to draw in a majority of our potential target audience, and that these opening sequences are extremely important and need to engage the audience, which we will be aiming to do.

Internet Research into the Thriller genre: What is a thriller?

What is a thriller? Using the Internet I found out the following:

• Thrillers take place in regions around the world
• Thrillers can take ordinary people into danger or extraordinary circumstances
• Thrillers often overlap with mysteries
• Heroes in thrillers must thwart plans of an enemy
• Thrillers can be influenced by both the horror and the action genres
• Physchological thrillers commonly use monstrous elements to heighten tension

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)

Analysis of 'Mulholland Drive'

I watched the opening sequence of 'Mulholland Drive', an unconventional thriller, for both inspiration for my final piece, and to understand how opening sequences of thrillers work.

Mulholland Drive Analysis

The opening sequence of ‘Mulholland Drive’ is a very unique and interesting thriller. It is unconventional, makes little sense, and possesses a complex narrative structure.

It begins very shadowy. The Jazz music and energetic dancing is quite confusing, as it is a thriller. The audience question this montage, wondering who is dancing, and why? What is the occasion? Strange fades and layering are used to show three people, glowing white due to over exposure, and we then ask who are they?

There are then dark colours, and along with this dark pink, there is heavy breathing, and intriguing narrative enigma. This also creates interesting sexual overtones. The name of the film is then on the sign, letting the audience know what the film is based around. Flashing lights also show the idea of fame behind the plot.

Filming schedule

Below is the filming schedule Ben and I will follow to effectively use our time, and successfully begin editing ahead of schedule.

Thursday 26th February 2009
At around 6pm we will film, for the right natural lighting needed. Torches may be needed to provide light in some circumstances. We will film the dark hooded figure walking towards the abandoned building.

Monday 2nd March 2009
We will film the last piece, the dark figure on the white background, and then begin to edit.

Actors

We need just one actor for our clip, a dark hooded figure. A good friend of myself and Ben, Sam Gibbons has agreed to help us. We chose Sam as we know him well, and know he will take it seriously, as he is also working on his thriller clip, and knows the circumstances we are working under. He is a good build to film for our scene, as with a hood up, and in dark clothes, he can give off a threatening and ominous feel to the audience. He is tall, and quite big which helps to emphasise this idea of the character being ominous and threatening. Ben and myself will be using ourselves as the outlined, dark figures in the second part of the clip. At the top of the blog are images of Sam.

Costume

We plan to use this black hooded coat with the hood up to make our character look mysterious. We also want to use it as obviously with it being black it makes the character look dark. The use of the hood will not only make our character look mysterious but it will also hide his face to pose more question to the audience that we will be appealing to keeping them on the edge of their seats making them want to watch on to see who this dark hooded character is. We are also going to use black jeans. Again, the use of black will make the character look dark and mysterious; it will also mean they are harder to see and their identity will be concealed as we plan to shot our opening at dusk, this will again mean there will be a more mysterious look to our character. We plan to make our character look as dark and strange as possible to pose many questions to our audience keeping them interested and keeping them watching. Below is an image to give an idea of what the costume will look like.

Location
These are the Location shots. We chose this location and area because it encompasses the mood and feel that we wanted to encorporate into our thriller. The derelict and abandoned building shown looks scary, unused, and intriguing, and the surrounding bushes and trees creeping up it and around it make it seem menacing and scary, which is what we wanted from our location. The broken and overgrown path leading up to it also makes it look abandoned, and is perfect for our hooded character to walk down. The area will also look particular good as light is fading, as it will cast shadows, and look even more intriguing and scary.

Risk Assessment

This is the risk assessment both myself and Ben created so we are careful and sensible when filming our opening 2 minutes. It lists the risks we believe we will be faced with, and how we will ensure that we film carefully and don't allow these risks to happen, making sure we stay safe.

Working in the dark. To make sure we are careful when we are working in the dark about double check where we are going. Make sure we film effectively and not lose the light and look we hope to get.

Cars. Check the roads before crossing and make sure we have general road safety around rounds and cars.

Lights. Make sure the wires will not be getting in the way so no one can trip and also make sure people are not touching them as they may be hot.

Working outside. Make sure we are wearing suitable clothing and shoes whilst we are doing our work outside and make sure that we are looking what we are doing and where we are doing it so we are always safe.

Pedestrians. Make sure if we do catch other people on camera they are willing to be on and also make sure that we don’t walk into anyone or cause anyone any danger by getting in their way whilst filming.

Weather. Make sure that we not only keep you safe by wearing the correct clothing in the weather but make sure we look after the equipment that we are using in our outdoor shots.

Buildings, surroundings. Not just the terrain we are working on but the surroundings such as streams, rivers and cliffs. Make sure we know where we are and what is around us. Make sure the buildings we use in our shots are safe as well.

All of the research above is a result of the following lessons:

• 9th February 2009
• 11th February 2009
• 23rd February 2009
• 25th February 2009 (conducting questionnaire)

We also storyboarded our ideas over half term, meeting up on the 22nd (the Sunday). It was a very successful session. We worked well, and came up with a great idea we were both very pleased with. I am very happy to be working with Ben, as we work well together.

This is the animatic storyboard.

We have also decided to insert a logo for an, at present, unnamed production company right at the start, on the black background.

Final Project, Lesson 1

Today we started our final projects. I'm working with Ben.
We brainstormed our ideas, and have a few clear understandings of what we want to achieve.
We then watched a couple of clips and analysed them. A clip from Silent Night Deadly Night and The Bourne Identity. We also compiled the beginning of our questionnaire that we will conduct to find out what we need to include to make our opening sequence great.

Following the next lesson, we hope to have completed our planning and research, and upon doing so, I will include it in my next blog.

Preliminary Task
Our idea was to create a short, 30 second long clip with 4 lines of dialogue, as expressed by the teacher, in the style of a thriller. Through brainstorming, we decided we wanted ideas of hidden identity, aggression, interior feelings hidden away, a sense of speed and pace, the idea of some sort of conflict, be it mentally or physically, and to leave the clip on a cliff hanger, a typical trait of the thriller style.

My group was myself, Amy, Matthew and Hannah. There is a lack of continuity in some of the clips, as Amy didn't wear the same costume on consecutive filming sessions. In the planning progress, Hannah and I were delgated with the task of storyboarding, and below are pictures of what I produced.




Amy was delgated the job of deciding on costume, but has failed to give me any substantial information.

Matthew was delgated the job of deciding props, location, and actors:

The setting for the filming is a long dark corridor, the camera is focused on the feet, this is so you can not see the body and face of the Amy. The second location for the filming is going to be an empty class room, the room again is dark. A table is going to be placed in the centre of the room with a chair with Hannah on the other side facing towards the camera.

Amy: The person that walks down the corridor and enters the room.
Hannah: The person sitting in the chair already in the room.
Matthew: Camera man, Editing
Toby: Camera man, editing


Final Note:
I managed to edit my own version, after spending my own time after school working on it. Unfortunately I had trouble with burning it to DVD, but hopefully, when I get back to school after half term, the teacher who said they would try and sort it for me will have succeeded.

Lesson 1

What is a Thriller

Scary
Edge of your seat
Nail biting
Action/adventure/horror
Tense

Conventions of a thriller

Suspense
Crime at the core of the narrative (often murder)
Complex narrative structure – false paths, clues & resolutions
Narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which viewers expect to be resolved
Protagonist is systematically dis empowered & drawn into a complex web of intrigue by antagonist
Extraordinary events happen in ordinary situations
Themes of identity
Themes of mirroring
Themes of voyeurism
Protagonist with a flaw/weakness that is exploited by the antagonist
Often a scene near the end where the protagonist is in peril/danger
Mise-en-scene echoes/mirrors protagonists plights

Lesson 2

North by Northwest is a suspense thriller, directed and produced by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant as the protagonist in a case of mistaken identity. It fits many conventions of a thriller. A crime is at the heart of it, apparently committed by Grant's character, and there is suspense all the way through. Despite this, it is evidently a dated film. It was quite slow, and thrillers in modern cinema are more to the point, sharper, and quicker. Right at the end, the scene on Mount Washington, where he is in danger, along with his female companion, again fitting the convention of a thriller.

Notes on opening sequences

American Psycho: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TvNL_u6IaRM

Immediate question posed – what is the money buying/purchasing?
Why is this person paying?
Where is the place?
What style of club is it?
What is going on?
Why is the man going to this club?
Introducing us to crew members
Music and questioning of the situation create tension and suspense
“Fucking ugly bitch” – why so aggressive?
“I wanna stab you to death and play with your blood” continues the question of who is the man? Why does he say this?
Creates shock, confusion
Left unanswered, audience wants to know more


Mission Impossible 2: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7s5KFbyBmrQ

Where are we?
We have normal, crew names introduced, prod companies etc
Who is this guy?
Why is he climbing the rocks?
Why is he risking so much?
The sheer height creates tension, as there is the possibility that something bad might happen
Why is this man so brave?
Why is this man so strong?
This all helps to build the question, who is he, why are we following him?
Audience are in awe of this man.
Suddenly we want to know, why is the helicopter here? Who is in it?
Pointing at man, why? Why is there a gun?
Tension built again
Why does the man laugh?
Music creates tension, confusion in the background
Where is this technology coming from?
Who is hiring him?
Why does it self-destruct?
What’s going on?
All answered in the film, draws audience in