Camera: - Focus, how to set up right frame, 2/3 1/3 rule.
Editing: - Effects, Fades/Transitions, manipulating shots, match cutting, cross cutting, jump cuts etc.
Titles: - Font suggests type of movie to the audience, sequence has to follow a convention
Mise en Scene: - Props, outfits, locations, make-up etc
Team work: - How to contribute ideas equally and communication skills.
Organisation: - How to do very careful research and planning, realised itss essential to make a good movie.
Lighting: - Spot lights, effects lighting can have on the way the audience views a character
Sound: - Learned it was tricky to work with voices as they don't sound good, sound fx, diegetic and non diegetic- plus sound track very important to create mood.
iMac: - We also learnt how to use the iMacs to help improve the quality of our work.
For the large majority of the work we did in media we used and were introduced to new technologies.
iMac
Final Cut Pro
Soundtrack Pro
Blogger
All these new programmes and websites were introduced to us in order to improve the quality of our work. We learnt all the tricks and shortcuts of the iMac, how to edit our work to a professional standard, how to use soundtrack to add any sound to our work, how to convert our clips on quick-time and post it up on our blogs, and much much more.
We decided posting our 2 minute thriller opening on YouTube would be another good way of getting a clear sense of what our audience response is.
We got 6 likes, 92 hits and 0 dislikes on YouTube.
We received positive feedback from our audience which gave us a good sense of what they got out of our clip and what their honest opinions are.
Posting our video on YouTube was a good idea because it is not a direct way of getting feedback. This is a positive thing because people wont feel under pressure to give back positive comments as its all communicated through the internet and it isn't directed to anyone personally, its for whoever can/wants to comment, as oppose to asking them personally face to face.
The success of a film determines on how good it actually is. Budget can effect that to an extent as it limits the equipment and technologies available to the students. However I do not think that is the main determinant for the success of a film. For example, if the idea for a film is very cliche and boring but the movie was filmed in 3D, it would not necessarily do better than a ordinary 2D film with a very good and exciting story line.
Although our film may not be on a large budget I certainly do not think that would determine the success of our movie. We have posted our opening title sequences on Vimeo, YouTube and Blogger to help distribute our title sequences. If the quality of our movies was any better i doubt it would effect the success we would have on the Internet.
Amber is a 19 year old girl from Essex. She lives at home with her mother and little brother. Her room is a mess due to her laziness and carelessness. She is a big fan of facial piercings, tattoos, big black hair and big black eye makeup, parties, getting drunk and/or high. She shops at H&M and lives off her mother. She used to work at the local cafe but got fired on her second week.
Our target audience is a teenage girl/ young adult, who is not your average girly-girl. She has a bit of an edge and likes psychological thrillers that mess with her mind and make her think. She does not frighten easily so it takes a lot to scare her. For her, the scarier the better.
In our psychological thriller it becomes clear the character is worried about her appearance as she re-applies her makeup. This is projected from The Stepfather's title sequence when the stepfather is trimming his beard. These seem wrong in a thriller as they are "every day" activities and do not fit in well with the theme of the movie. That makes the character seem mysterious.
Dead Line and Se7en (1995)
Both Dead Line and Se7en begin with shots of the hands which may seem unusual to the viewer. The activities also may trigger a feeling of tension in the viewers, taking a tablet and putting a needle through a thread may seem normal but in a psychological thriller movie they can't be good news. Both these shots show there is something abnormal about the characters.
The black screens with white writing used in our title sequence to establish who was involved in the producing of the film was also used in Se7en.
Close-ups of the main characters doing something simple e.i. taking a tablet. Close-up of their hands. Gives a haunting feeling as the viewers feel they are deprived of a full view of the character.
Both Dead Line and Se7en ave decided to place their title in the middle of the title sequence rather than at the beginning or end.
Both title sequences open with the name of the supporting company "presents..".
Both title sequences only show body parts of the characters rather than long shots of the whole bodies.
Differences:
Dead Line's opening scene of the title sequence is an establishing shot of the location setting, whereas Se7en doesn't do this.
Dead Line used Serif Fonts while Se7en uses a Sans Serif Font.
Unlike Se7en, Dead Line show's the face of the mysterious character in the title sequence.
This is a rough cut of the first 2 minutes of our movie 'DEAD LINE', it does not have sound or title sequences and the editing used in the rough cut does not match the editing used in the real FINAL clip as we decided to change a few things.
As we had to re-film we could not afford to pay for the same room we had before for the previous film in the hotel. After watching back the clips on 'sinful wings' we decided to change quite a few things and needed more clips. The location was in the home of one of our group members. We used this person's room because she had laminated flooring which we really wanted to use as we thought it had worked well when we filmed in the hotel room.
So as we arrived to the house we were all just taking about how to film and getting ready etc. When getting the camera and equipment ready we saw that the memory card for the camera was missing as we had left it in college. We tried to get hold of a memory card but we were unsuccessful. We asked neighbours as college was significantly far away from the location, but we could not get hold of one and were forced to go back to college.
We made our way back to college to collect memory card then went back to the location and filmed, which took us about 2 hours. This time we made sure we had enough clips, so we filmed each part 3 or 4 times to make sure we had enough clips.
The music in a film plays a very big part. The music emphasis an action. This also suggests the genre and sets the mood for the film before it is fully watched. Automatically when we hear a scary sound in a film we quickly think that it is going to be scary. A unique opening of a thriller movie that really inspired me of the music and sound is in 'The Stepfather'. At the beginning we hear the children singing 'Silent night' and we hear the music behind it, then it switches into a dark slow creepy odd sound when we see the people layed on the floor. Which at first we think the man is all innocent until we hear the bad music. I Think this is a clever way because it does not give much away and puts the audience in been confused in a way in what to believe if the guy is innocent or not.
As this really inspired our group we thought of putting a childish song at first to match with the character and then slowly change it to something very dark, slow and creepy.
Watching other thriller films I've seen that many of then have a peice of music throught the film with sound effects to really emphasise an action.
In the opening of The Stepfather (2009) The character switches on children singing 'Silent Night' howver, the sweet angelic song is embedded with odd creepy music which portray the characters sick twisted mind.
As it is asthough he targets something innocent and makes it mortifying.
PLACE THE OPENING OF THE STEPFATHER HERE
In the movie 'HIDE AND SEEK' I saw that there was a creepy piano instrumental throughout and maybe the use of string instruments. As the film goes on , the music gets louder and faint voices of the characters re heard but you can still hear the music.
(HIDE AND SEEK 2004)
Music plays a big part in not only thrillers but all movie openings as it suggest the genre and sets the mood for the film before it is fully watched .
Because we have changed some of the concept of our initial idea - Sinful wings
we decided that the title does not go very well with the concept of our film as we did not use wings in our final film. And also we thought it sounds less appealing when said aloud.
the creative minds of my group enabled us to find many ideas to choose from such as: ROOM 3 DEADLINE RED LIPS
And so may more.
Our final decision for our title is.... DEAD LINE as the characters door number is '33' and it will made clear at the end of the film.
It is important to not give away the film with the title as the storyline of the film will be predictable and therefore, less enjoyable.
SALT IS AN EXAMPLE OF A THRILLER TITLE THAT DOES NOT GIVE AWAY THE FILM FROM JUST HEARING THE TITLE.
BY JUST HEARING THE TITLE SALT, MANY PEOPLE WILL BE CONFUSED AS TO WHAT THE FILM IS ABOUT AND WHY THE WORD 'SALT' HAS ANY RELEVANCE. 'SALT' IS THE SURNAME OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE FILM. AND IT IS ABOUT A CIA AGENT... NOT ABOUT CHIPS!
BY JUST HEARING THE TITLE SALT, MANY PEOPLE WILL BE CONFUSED AS TO WHAT THE FILM IS ABOUT AND WHY THE WORD 'SALT' HAS ANY RELEVANCE.