Evaluation
After completing are film and portfolio I feel rather positive. I have enjoyed a lot of things about the course and I have learnt a lot of things. This ranges from planning to editing a film on imovie. Also I have developed skills that I already had. Despite this being fun we had problems which I’m going to evaluate on.
When I started this course I had never done Media Studies before so I was a big novice when I arrived. It took me a while to understand the task in front of me, the portfolio and the exam. Several weeks went by before we came up with are first idea for the film. Story boards were done but after one week of filming we decided we needed a better idea. The problems that we had with the first idea was that it was too complex and would be time consuming in the long term. However this left us at a dead end because we were struggling to come up with a new idea. Mr Seel showed us Train Spotting which inspired us with the running scene idea. With this in mind we were able to complete story boards easily and efficiently.
I things that I enjoyed through out this was the actual shooting of the film. This is because it was different to just doing writing work. I felt it went very well because we didn’t run into any problems whilst filming. Also I enjoyed planning out the film and coming up with the idea’s. All of this was completely new to me which is why I feel I enjoyed it so much.
I have learned a lot of new things. Camera techniques took a while to understand but now I am comfortable with them. When it came to editing we had to use imovie, to use it I needed to master tools such as “Ken Burns”. The only problem I had with this was putting music clips into the film. This problem was that the sound would stop playing halfway through for some reason. After a while we fixed the problem and continued with are film.
If I was to do this film again I would make several changes. I would have made sure the film would work before starting the filming so I wouldn’t have to come up with a new idea half way through the year. I would get the storyboards done sooner to give me more time actually doing the film. Aswell as this I would focus a lot more on the paperwork side of the course as I have realised more marks are available for the written work. However i feel would still choose a thriller genre because it was fun to film and involved a lot of thinking. The film overall i feel went well however because we were running out of time the quality of the film may not be as good as we had hoped when we first started the film.
1) What genre of film do you prefer?
-Thriller -Romance -Action -Comedy
2) What characters do you prefer thriller films to focus on?
-Victim/s -Killer/s -Friend/s -Other
3) Where do you prefer films to be located at?
-Woods -Streets -Houses + Cars -Other
4) What age-rated films do you prefer to watch?
-Uc -U -PG -12a -12 -15 -18 18+
5) What do you think is the most effective way of advertising?
-T.V -Internet -Radio -Posters -Other
6) Do you think that thriller films are interesting?
-Yes -No -Not sure
7) Give your opinion on violence in thriller films.
Thriller Film Opening
Duration
2 Minutes
Description
- Thriller
- Mystery
Characters
- Victim, ordinary clothes looks very normal.
- Killer, Darker clothing very devious looking, black hat to hide face, facial features not clear.
Format
- Opening credits are over the start of the scene as he enters the woods.
- Starts with him getting the text and walking to the woods.
- He is watched from the bushes by the killer.
- The boy reaches meeting point and is killed there thus ending the scene.
Title Possibilities
- Watched !!
- Hidden
- The Message
- The Sender
- Send and receive
Synopsis:
A teenage boy called Matt has a message ( or voice mail ) from his friend saying for him to meet him at the centre of the woods. The boy walks all the way to the woods and enters on his own. As he walks through the woods it is acknowledged that he is not alone in there. He is being followed by a mysterious figure in the bush by the side of the path. Eventually the figure enters the path behind the boy and starts to follow him. The boy eventually gets to the meeting point, as he waits for his friend he looks at his phone and he has a message saying “ behind you”. As the boy looks up he gets shot in the back from this mysterious man who was pointing the gun at his head the whole time.
After this event a local person walks past with his dog and notices the dead body. Police get informed and instantly try to find the killer. During this time the killer kills another person with the same technique using the previous victims phone but a different location. The police start to receive letters hinting who the killer will get next and he describes in the letter that this is a game and it continues until he loses.
First Idea
The scene would start with a black plain screen with the sound of a phone ringing. The ringing would stop and a voice mail will come through. When the message is finished the sound of the phone hanging up will happen (beeeeeeeep) . The beeping fades out and the title appears on the black screen. We are then left with the victim leaving his house and walking down some roads, ( the camera will be looking at his footsteps and it will look at his upper body in some shots too ). The film credits will be being played behind the film at this point.
The victim is videoed walking and eventually entering the woods. As he enters the woods a mysterious piece of music will be played as he slowly goes down the paths. He walks along the paths in the woods looking side to side with suspicion. He starts to get watched through the bushes ( the camera will be looking out the watchers eyes as the victim walks past ). As he walks a certain distance the camera changes to a front on view. The victim walks off the scene and as he does so out of the bushes a bit further down the path the killer steps onto the path and walks towards the camera. The scene changes to a crossroad shot, the victim turns right and the killer walks straight on.
In the final part of the clip the victim is making his way through a narrow path with trees either side. ( the camera will shoot him coming out, and as he walks past the camera will steady turn and face out towards the cliff top he will be stood on ). The victims phone receives a text message saying “behind you”. The boy slowly looks up from his phone and behind him is the killer holding the gun. ( the camera will be in front of the victim so the killer isn’t visible at first ). The screen suddenly goes black with the sound of a gunshot.
Final choice
Duration 2 minutes
After having a discussion with the rest of my group, we have decided to choose my idea however we have changed it slightly.
Title
The Witness
Description
A boy is walking causally on a route he normally takes to his college. However on his way he finds an arm round a corner on the street. The boy avoids this and keeps walking to school but runs into the killer. The boy gets chased and gets caught by the killers. The scene then ends with the boy being dragged to the docks.
In later scenes of the film the boy is forced to join a gang as he witnessed the murder and the people who see this. The boy becomes involved in drugs fights and chases throughout the film.
The opening scene will be filled with different shots to show the audience that this is a thriller. The chase scene will have fast cuts and different camera movements making the audience feel right in the action at all times.
New Group Idea ( we are doing this one!!!!! )
the film is about a boy who sees somebody who has been killed. The scene starts with the character looking at a river, it is a mystery why he is doing this but the reason gets revealed as the film goes on. After he is done at the river he starts to walk he goes past some houses and then under a sub way. The boy finds a dead body so he starts to walk faster and becomes very cautious. A new character appears in front of him with a hammer this is the start of a chase scene. The scene ends with the boy being punched in the face and dragged off.
Story Board
- Mid shot looking down at the river flowing past.
- Upwards panning from bottom of victims shoes, to top of victims head.
- Ariel shot of victim walking away from river, and along the path.
- Camera in still position, looking at victims feet as he walks past.
- Still shot of victim walking round the corner and out of camera’s view
- Over the shoulder shot of victim walking around the the corner and down the path.
- Over the shoulder shot of victim carrying on down the path.
- Still shot of the front of victims body, walking down path.
- Still shot of victims boy, walking round corner and looking over to the right, at something interesting.
- Long shot of dead body, led on floor, covered in blood.
- Close up of Victims face, looking at his shocked/worried expression.
- Pan of victim walking down path, after he found dead body.
- Panning carries on until victim walks into subway.
- Tracking shot of victim walking through subway.
- Ariel shot of victim coming out from subway, then coming face to face with Killer.
- Close up of victims hand, holding hammer.
- Slow motion Mid-range shot of victim, showing his facial expressions/emotions.
- Slow motion Close up of killer dropping hammer out of his hand.
- Slow motion Close up of hammer falling on to floor.
- Ariel shot of victim running away, then killer chasing after him.
- Steady shot of killer and victim running past camera.
- Low angle shot of killer and victim jumping over camera, then running away.
- Point Of View shot (POV), looking through victim eyes, as he is being chase by killer.
- POV shot looking through victims eyes as he is running away, then he turns back to look at killer.
- Camera starts off as long-shot, looking at killer chasing victim, then pulls in a bit, as killer and victim gets closer to camera.
- A slight panning shot as killer wrestles victim to floor.
- Point Of View shot of camera looking through victims eyes, as he gets punched by killer.
- A low close up shot of the victim being dragged off with the title fading in then out.
Filming techniques
Rule of Thirds:
Something to be aware of is having the focal point of your shot about 1/3 of the way down from the screen. This mimics how you actually see scenes in real life. This is especially important when we are seeing a person face to face. The eyes of the person you are focused on should be at 1/3 down from the top of the screen.
When filming a moving object, or something with direction to one side of the space, leave more room in front of the object than behind. Make more room where it is going.
Here is a site with photos explaining the rule of thirds.
Use a tripod (or other device to place your camera on) as much as possible. When you are holding the camera with your hand, find something steady to lean on. If you are sitting down, use your leg to steady the camera. Use a pole, the side of a building, a bench. Hands usually shake, look around you, you can usually find something solid to help you stay steady.
You don’t have to get a big clunky tripod either. I had a small, 3 inch tripod. It was very handy and versatile. You set it up anywhere, and you have a lot of options for camera angles, not just limited to being flush with the surface.
Be aware of external sound. Cars moving in the background, scenes in crowded places like bars or restaurants will drown out the audio you are trying to pick up – unless you have an external microphone. The sound may be half of the filming experience, it’s easy to forget about it, but sound is as necessary as the picture for producing your video.
Don’t count on fixing ‘it’ later. It’s easy to say that you will do a voice over or use some editing technique to fix some mistake later. In reality, its much harder to fix it in editing (post) than to just film it over again. Shoot extra shots, do multiple takes; it’s better to spend a couple more minutes shooting than to get home and realize that you are short on the footage you need. Ayayay.
Keep in mind the capabilities of the final destination for your video. The capabilities of a movie theater are much greater than that of internet video (such as Flix55). The resolution of internet video is much smaller and even the sound capabilities are not as refined. Think about how you are watching videos: on a small screen on your computer and with computer speakers. For what we are doing, we don’t need professional equipment.
And we may not want pro equipment either: Go in public, you will get much less attention (and distractions) filming with your camcorder than with a big professional model with microphones coming out the top. Blend in.
Make sure you have an extra battery, and extra tapes – just in case. When you are stuck, you will pay anything for some more juice or more tape. I suggest you buy accessories in bulk, you can get 10+ tapes off sites like ebay or amazon for the same price as a few at brick and mortar stores like best buy (buy online if there is little chance you will have to return the product).
Use zoom as little as possible. The pictures quality may suffer, but more devastatingly, the camera footage will be much shakier.
Shoot with the light not against it. You want your subjects to have bright faces, rather than the sun or another light source being directly behind them (unless you are going for that effect)
Technical Tips:
Become familiar with auto vs manual focus.
Sometimes you do not want to focus in on what is directly in front of you, then you will need to manual zoom. Most handheld cameras, under manual focus, will focus on the cross hair or dot or square in the centre. Put that mark on what you want to focus on, press the manual focus button, and when what you want is in focus, frame your shot.
And focus on the EYES.
White Balance:
Many new cameras are relatively good with automatic white balance. Basically whenever you are filming in places with different lighting sources (sun, fluorescent lights, halogen lights, etc.), the camera will need to re-white balance whenever you switch locations. When the video looks blue and washed out, this is usually as a result of not white balancing. To white balance, focus on something completely white (a piece of paper, a t shirt, a wall) and press the button on your camera to white balance.
180 degree rule
The 180 Degree Rule is an important aspect of the film grammar. The Director’s template has a tool for drawing in the 180 degree axis and it is worthwhile to get in the habit of drawing it in.
Crossing the 180 degree axis can be very confusing since the directions established for the viewer is changed. An example of this would be like watching a football game with the runner going to the right and all of a sudden we cut to him running to the left. It would make the viewer wonder if he was running the wrong way or not.
Research from :-
(http://justsayyes.wordpress.com/2007/07/19/basic-tips-and-techniques-for-filming/)
All of these techniques will be adequate for are film as it involves we have many different aspects in are movie. For example with have a running scene which would mean we would have using some of these techniques to show the pace of the movie. However the 180 degree rule wouldn’t be that important for are opening clip because their isn’t any talking but, their is one shot where the villain/killer looks at the victim so for this will have to make sure we use the 180 degree rule and not to cross the line.
Institution Distribution
For are film we would get an independent that resembles are film in the same way. For example because are film is a british thriller we would use the independent company Artificial Eye. They focus on films that are based on local themes, a low budget would only be available which would also distribute are film to a British only audience. Previous English films have tried to despite themselves to an American audience but have not appealed to them. We feel that if we were to try and distribute it to america as well it would go very well as the Americans would portray events in a different way and may not understand what is going on. For this reason we want to focus on satisfying the English audience as they will be able to relate to it better.
Once we came to a decision with Artificial Eye we would focus on publicising are product. To do this we would use technological convergence to use adverts. the adverts would show a brief clip of the movie and would give the audience relevant information about the film. Dates for the film release will also be on the screen to try and bring more people in to see it at the cinema.
as the date of release is approaching different cinemas will bid to try and get a screening. When this is all done the cinemas will show adverts of are movie before each film but only before the films that are for the same target audience as ares. For are target audience to be chose we would use BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). Using BBFC would mean the target audience would be chose for us correctly. They would probably say that it is a 15 as are film contains violence that isn’t suitable for younger viewers however it isn’t bad enough to warrant being an 18.
Audience
Research into thriller age ratings.
We have gone through a list of thriller films listing in the table below what age rating they are. We have done this to give us an idea of what target audience / age rating we should try and appeal to.
| PG | 12/12a | 15 | 18 |
| 15 | 7 | 11 | 17 |
Theses results came from a list of 50 thriller films from – http://www.imdb.com/chart/thriller. Despite these results it is hard to know if they are reliable as the older films during the 1950s all seem to be PG’s where as year 2000 films seem to have the same conventions but are rated higher. Despite this it has helped up choose are target audience which we have decided will be 16-30 year olds. We come to this decision based on are table. If you don’t count the PG column then the numbers go ups show an interest more in the older viewers. This is clear to us that the older the audience gets the better they are as a target audience because they are the main consumers of thrillers.
Another reason for us choosing this age range is because they will be able to relate to the characters as the main characters are both teenagers. Are internet research was a huge contributor to help us choose the age range. We looked on loads of websites and a few forums to see what film genre is their favourite and why they like it. It was clear that younger (teenage viewers) knew more conventions from thrillers compared to their knowledge of other genres this clearly showed that the thriller genre was the most popular amongst teenagers.
We also looked at the actual codes and conventions to see how they would link to certain ages. For example a convention of a thriller is fast paced action, this would probably not be appealing to an older audience. Car scenes are very popular amongst youths which is of course a convention of a thriller. A reason why we are not willing to have the range lower is because the film contains blood and violence which is not suitable for younger viewers. Due to are research we also noticed that the minimum age for thrillers is normally 15 which is perhaps the main reason why we chose 16-30.
