Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 6

What have I learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the whole process of constructing our thriller opening we used lots of different types of technologies. I will be talking about what hardware and software and sites that I used to help with doing my blogs and videos. 

Hardware


The hardware I used for my blogs was using the iMac, the iMac was the computer that I generated all of my blogs, but I also used a PC when I had no access to the iMac to do my blogs. I only used the when it came to editing my finished product.
The hardware I used for constructing my final piece was a Sony AVCHD Camera, Tripod, mobile phone and iMac. What the camera did for us was capture our scenes, it recorded if for us, the way we were able to use cinematography techniques was by using the tripod. What we used the tripod for is the hold the camera on top of it steady, this allowed us to move the camera around without it being all shaky. The top part of the tripod could move up or down, left or right. This allowed us to do pan shots, tracking shots, high and low angle shots. We then used the iMac to do our editing on the Preliminary Task we did, Sound Task, Cinematography and Thriller Opening. I also used the iMac to do my blogs and upload them online. I used my mobile phone to take pictures of my storyboard and picture for our production meeting post. 




Software

The software that I used in my process of constructing my final product is Adobe Premier Pro, Google Chrome, Quick Time Player and Microsoft PowerPoint. The reason why I used Adobe Premier Pro is to edit my videos, I used this software to edit my Thriller Opening, it allowed me to add audio, transitions, fade in and fade outs, titles and overlay text on the screen. It let me add images, and cut scenes if needed to cut. Once I was finished with editing my Thriller Opening, I exported it and uploaded it as a blog post. I used Google Chrome to allow me to access the internet, which let me get information, images and access my blog. This is how I was able to upload on to my blog. I used Quick Time Player to be able to record my voice and then add in my Thriller Opening that I edited on Premier Pro. I used Microsoft PowerPoint for some of post as a technology by using slid share. 

Internet sites

The internet sites that I used were Prezi, Popplet, Spicynodes,SurveyMonkey, Padlet, Pixlr, Slideshare, YouTube and Blogger. The reason why I used Prezi is to be able to do blog post which were made from other technologies, the same goes with Padlet, Spicynodes, Popplet and Slideshare. I used SurveyMonkey to ask some people which have watched my Thriller Opening on feedback. I used Pixlr to help me edit images for when I was making my animatic or adding a image on my blog. YouTube was used to upload my Thriller Opening and also get other videos from there for my other blogs, I would use a embed code to add them into my blogs. I used Blogger to do all of my Blogs and my evaluation questions. 

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

Feedback from questions that I made by using SurveyMonkey

Evaluation Question 3

Created with Padlet

Evaluation Question 2

Styles of editing

There are lots of types of editing when it comes to making a movie. Some of the editing styles are known as eye-line match, speed, shot / reverse / shot, action match, montage, slow motion, and transition.

There are lots of types of transitions, these types are straight cuts, dissolves, fades, wipes, jump cuts and graphic match.

Straight cut
What a straight cut does is help retain reality in a film. this is to help not break a viewers suspension of disbelief.

Dissolves
A dissolve is when one shot on screen is fading off and a shot is fading in. This allows both the audience will be able see both shots on the screen at the mid-point of the dissolve. This is usually used to connection in between two people or two things.

Fades
A fade is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it is black or white. A fade will fade until you are left with only a black or white screen.  A fade is used if the producer wants to indicate the end of time within the narrative. It also can indicate the passing of time.

Wipes
This is when a shot is pushed off the screen by another shot. They are usually pushed left or right of the screen. It is more common when the shot is to be pushed from the left side of the screen because it gives a signal that there is movement id location or time.

Jump Cut
A jump cut is when the audiences attention is brought into there focus on someone or something very suddenly. This only happens by breaking the continuity editing, also known as discontinuity. A jump cut appears as if a section of a sequence has been removed.

Graphic Match
This is when two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look, for example having one image going into another image but they look similar.

Past Student Work Analysis

After Eight

''After Eight'' was done really well, it keeps the audience informed and lets us know what is going on throughout the whole of the thriller opening. What we see at the start is a man which has come from work, whilst his partner is cooking something for her and the man which has come from work to eat something. There is a great use of editing in the ''After Eight'' A example of this would be the use of straight cuts which are used at the start. The reason why they have used straight cuts because it is indicating that the two characters have something major to with what ever is going on, the way they have done this is by making them look normal but suspicious with the background music which has been used. 

Modern Thriller Openings

Brick

In Brick we see that there is a problem, we didn't’t need no dialogue to know that there is a problem.

There is a use of non-diegetic music in the background, but there is also the use of diegetic sound of water running. The effect of this to show that the climax has already happened and that there is nothing left to be done at this stage.

No dialogue was used, there was no need for dialog this is because we can visually see what has happened and what is going on without having the charter saying something.

The music which has been used is dull and sad, just by listing to the music we can tell that the film isn't going to be about something fun, but what it does tell us is that is that something bad has happened.

The coloring that was used  for the opening of Brick is blue and grey. The reason for this is to show that it is a sad atmosphere, that a death as accord and something bad has happened, this foreshadows that there are more bad things and possible more deaths which may happen in the rest of the film.

The setting is near a dark, wet sewer tunnel. This shows us that it is a dirty, cold and a place people that wont want to be in, which makes it a perfect place for a murder. 

Shot Reveres Shot was used in the opening of Brick, the reason for this is to show what the Character was looking at, there is also a lot of eye line match used in during this. This is to show us what part of the body he was looking at on the floor.

There was also a transition of a fade from a shot of his shoes to his face. This is to show us that something has happened to do with the character with the shoes sitting near the tunnel.

We first see a pan shot of the characters shoes, to then a close up shot of the characters eyes. This us that something has happened, to do with this character, and that he is looking at something.

We then see a establishing shot, the reason for this is so we can see the scenery and see what is going on, and who may be there.

We then see close up shots of the body and the guys face. More focusing on the body, it gives us an idea on who it may be, for example when there is a close up shot on the bodies head and arm, we see there is blond hair, and a blue bracelet, this allows the viewer to look out for these features in the film.

Zodiac

At the very start we can hear fireworks in being set of in the night sky. What's this is indicating to that there is a celebration of some sort like knew years, this builds up the tension that something bad may be coming up because of the explosion sounds, very similar to a gun shot sound.

Right at the end of this scene its all we can hear is diegetic sounds of cars, fireworks and dialogue, and of screen sound of the radio, this helps build tension, once we see the boy get shot, the tone of the music get loader, this is to indicate that a death has occurred.

The opening scene of the film Zodiac is all dark. The gives the scenes that there will be death.

The scene is at night time, this at a the time of day where people stay in, a time of day where crime tends to happen, so it gives the viewer a feeling that something bad may about to happen.

We see a red care which looks black because of the dark. The reason for this is because the red is indicating blood and danger and the black is indicating death.  

First we see a establishing shot open the scene of the city and see fireworks. The scene is very dark, and it also gives an ironic feel because something bad is going to happen on a night of celebration.

We then see a tracing shot of a car passing houses, to then stop at a boy with a woman in the car, this indicates that something bad is going to happen to do with the two people.

We also then see a high angle shot on the car that the two people are, this indicates that they are weak and v and that if something bad was to happen, they would be the targets. 

This then goes in to shot reverse shot to show conversation in between the woman and the man. This tells us that if something bad is going to happen its going to do with these two people.

At the start it is all slow paste editing, this is because  there is nothing going on, but when it starts to build up to the killings of the people in the car, editing gets faster, the effect of this is to show that something bad is happening.

No Country For Old Men

At the very start there is of screen sound of a man talking, says something to do with death in a job, yet not wanting to over do it, but it must be done because of the world they live in. This already indicates that there may be a deaths.

There is then diegetic sounds of the police officer talking on the phone, and we can hear the confusion of the tank, that the man which was brought in, was holding.

Whilst the police officer is being strangled to death, and we can hear the struggle for his life, you can also hear non-diegetic sound in the back, which starts of quite and gets loader, it gets loader the closer it gets to the police officers death.

“No Country for Old Men” starts of with an opening scene of the West of America. Its starts of quite empty like, hardly anything happens.

There is a man with long black hair, with a extinguisher clamp in his hand, he is also dressed in black. The colour black indicates death and danger, this is telling the viewer that there may be deaths.

We then also see a police officer and a police station that there is something to do with bending the law.

There is slow paste editing at the being of the scene, this is just to show that nothings really happing, then we when the police officer is being strangled to death, the shots are much faster, a change in editing speed, it became faster, this is to show that something is happing, a murder is occurring. 

We then see a shot revers shot in between the strange man in black and a guy in a car, this straight away indicates that another death may be in its way because, he is not a real police but just a killer.

We first have establishing shows of the mountings in the west. This indicates that there is no where to run to, no one around to help. A prefect place to commit a murder and get away with it. This is the reason why a establishing shot was used.

We them see a pan shot of a police officer and a guy dressed in black. This shows us that there will be something terrible that will happen in between the two people.

Then we see another establishing shot with the police car driving down the road. This shows us that even if there is a force of law, out there it is just two people in a car, still no one to help.

Then is a close up shot of the ;police officer and the man dressed in black, this indicates that something bad is going to happen to the police officer, this is because the guy in the black  is at the back of the police officer and is being approached.

There is then a close up shot of the police officer being strangled. All the other shots were leading up to something bad to do with the police officer. 

A History Of Violence 

A History Of Violence starts with two men coming out of a motel room, whilst having conversation. One of the men are dressed in black which indicates death and murder. The come out of the motel room having a conversation as they approach there car. The younger man which was there drove up a little which is near there motel. 

Genre

Evaluation Question 1

Thriller Titles

This is a title opening of a thriller called "Se7en". The first thing that tells me it is a thriller is the use of sound, the music which is being used is dark and sinister which straight away let's the audience know that this is a thriller and not a romantic or a comic film. This title sequence is very dark, which may indicate that there me death, we see pictures of dead body, like as if they are files to a police investigation, this gets the audience thinking, why are is there pictures of dead people. What did catch my eye is, someone cutting there skin with a razor blade, this gets the audience thinking, is there a reason why there is someone cutting there skin, or is this a weapon which will kill or hurt someone in the movie. This only gets the audince to keep watching the rest,

Audience feedback

My audience feedback came from my family, and what my family said was that it was really good, and that it looked professional with the use of changing shot angles. My mentor also said that it was really well done and look very professional. Another way I got feedback is from the amount of likes and dislikes I got on YouTube for it.

Shot list

Shot List
Scene	Shot Number	Description
Tracking Shot Long Shot Medium Shot Close up Shot Long Shot Close up Shot Over the shoulder Shot High angle Medium Shot Wide angle Medium Shot Close up Shot	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12	A tracking shot on dead body facing flat on the floor. Tracking shot up body Back of a person facing a door. Injured person walking towards the door. Shot of feet, showing the person walking. Legs are getting closer to the door and the hand is appearing. Person looking at dead body, use of eyeline match. Dead body laying on the floor, view over the shoulder of the character. Character standing next to the body on the floor. The person next to dead body looking shocked. Wide angle shot to see the whole of the setting. Side of the persons face to show how vulnerable he is. Dead persons hand on the floor.
Medium Shot POV Shot Wide Shot/Pan Shot Medium Shot Close up Shot Medium Shot Extreme close up Shot Wide shot	13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20	Person touching the body lying on the floor. Blood on persons hand and then walking towards the door. View of the setting. Person looking around. View of the persons hands covered in blood. Person walking away. Shock in face. Person running away

Screening

When it came to screening my finished product. I showed my friends and family. The way I showed my friends were by using YouTube. I uploaded the finished product on to YouTube which meant other people could see it and also get it reviewed to see how many people liked it. For my family to watch it I put it on the big screen straight from YouTube so they can see. My mentor also watched the final product from YouTube.

Final recording

           Today we were able to finish recording our thriller opening. We had some some problems and had to re-shot some of the scenes. This isn't something we could control because of the pubic. The problem was that it was during after school which made the quite road that we were using a busy. There were continues cars passing us and have people cutting into the scene. This really is nothing we had control over and had to keep patients. We eventually got there in the end. We have already had an attempt on the final few seconds of our thriller but it was ruined. We did a a terrible job, the reason for this is because the weather was not on our side. We tried to do a rush job and avoid getting the camera wet.  The video below is our final clip.

Making title sequence

When making my title sequence I had my titles fade in and out of the screen. The reason for this is so it gave it a professional look but also give it that thriller feel. The way I did this is by using Adobe Premier Pro, this is also whilst I was editing my video. As I added text, I moved all the text to the bottom left of the screen. Then I used a type of fountain pen tool, this allowed me to put in the fade in and fade out effect to my title sequences.

Making my studio ident

The way I did my studio ident was by downloading a Adobe After Effects template from the internet, what I then went onto doing is by opening the file on Adobe After Effects, what this allowed me to do was edit the way it moves, colours and text. Allowed me to making into my own personal thing. So what I then did was add text "XKILLER PRODUCTION" as the studio ident. Once I did this I exported the file as a video and imported it on to my thriller opening during the editing process.

Introducing the group

Our group consists of two people, myself Ufuk Ozgul and Billy Martin. What we have been doing is planning and shouting a thriller opening. The way we have done this is by doing story boards on paper and then turning them into animatics. We have done this during our production meetings and this is to help give me and Billy Martin a understanding on how the film may turn out. We have spent our time on re-taking shots and trying to make them to the best they can be.

I am 17 years of age and so is Billy so we thought we would aim our thriller convention to London teenagers round our age.

Initial Ideas

What we first had in mind for making our thriller opening is having a character walking into a warehouse and find a body on the floor. We want to use lots of high angle shots on the person which has walked into the warehouse, the reason for this is because we want the audience to see that he cant do nothing and that he is venerable. We also want to use tilt shots to show confusion of the character. As a group we changed our mind about using a warehouse, the reason for this is because there was no way we had access to a warehouse, so we made our choice of using the back of a shop, where it looks dull and darkish, this is so it has the thrill feel. We also decided to start of with the character standing by the body to make it look like he killed the person on the floor. This is so we can get the audience to ask questions like, how was it done, why was it done?

How to film a thriller

When it comes to filming a thriller, there are lots of key elements consider to do with cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing. A thriller must thrill a audience using all of these techniques, a example of this may be the use of a high angle shot on a character to show how weak or vulnerable they may be, or the colouring of the setting maybe dark, this may be to indicate something bad may happen, for example a death. These are known as thriller conventions, weather it may use a cliffhanger to keep a audience to continue watching, or enigma codes.

The clip underneath uses all aspects of how a thriller should be filmed.

Third Production Meeting

In our third production meeting, we have been working on how we are editing our finial parts of our thriller opening. What we are focusing on is the audio levels to be equal in every shot, that we have a title sequence, background music and the shots not being to long. We also put our focus on getting the jump cuts that we have used to a high standard to they stand for the purpose and show confusion of the character.

Editing

Today we have be editing the first part of our thriller opening. We used the iMacs using a program called Adobe Premier Pro. During our editing process, me and my colleague Billy, have been looking at the best possible ways to make the opening of our thriller as efficient as possible. As well as showing our editing techniques, we took inspiration from previous thriller opening. We used a variety of techniques like jump cuts, this is to show confusion in the character.

First Day Of Filming

This is our fist day of filming, we met up with the group me and my colleague billy around 11am - 12am at the our setting that we were shouting our film. We felt that we needed to start early when the sky was still bright to get the best lighting, we got a lot done but we had a minor delay because of the public in our setting were arguing for a few hours, so we have had no chose but to finish filming on another day. 

Animatic

This is a animatic of our thriller opening that we are going to be recording. The reason why we done this is to give us a idea on how our final piece may look like and where we could improve. I added background music and sound effects to give it a realistic feel. Our final piece will be worked around our animatic.

 

Storyboard

First Draft

This is what we have recorded so far for our thriller opening, as you can see in the clip we have chosen a dull place for the mise-en-scene, we are trying to give the effect of death, we also wore dark clothing to give this effect. We showed our effects of using jump cuts to show how the character may be feeling. Around the end of this clip the shots lasted to long, so that is something we will work for, for the next time we go recording.

For the next time we go recording, we are hoping to finish the thriller opening, we want to give a viewer a feel of wanting to continue watching, so we are working really hard as a group to allow this to happen. We also need to edit after recording.

Thriller Conventions

Thriller Conventions is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres.

Thrillers are made by fast pace editing, and frequent action. In a Thriller there is usually resourceful heroes which plan out ideas on how to be more powerful to stop better equipped villains. A thriller is a villain driven plot. The villain presents obstacles the hero must overcome.

HERO





                             VILLAIN






Thrillers use devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers. The good use of these devices in a thriller make a good thriller because it makes the audience want to keep watching.

Suspense is a excitement which is mixed with apprehension, tension and anxiety which are developed from unpredictable and mysterious in a thriller. A example would be if a character is hanging of a ledge or tied on a railroad tracks with a train coming at full speed. Its the feeling the audience get, trying to work out how they will get out of the situation with character. It gives the audience as excitement.

This trailer for this thriller is a great example of suspense. The reason for this is because we see a man get taken away before seeing his wife. We as the audience want to know how he got into the situation and how he will get out of the situation.

What a red herring is something that may happen that makes the audience believe something that misleads us. A example would be someone being shot, we think that person that got shot is dead yet we see that he isn't dead because a blank was shot.


This is a scene from the thriller called "North By Northwest" created by Hitchcock. What we see in this scene is that Cary Grant gets shot, and we as the audience believe that his been shot, in fact we have been mislead to believe that he has been shot, yet only blanks were shot to make it look like he was shot. Only the character that was shooting and the character that was meant to have been shot know this. Us as the audience don't.

A cliffhanger is when we the audience is left questioning what will happen in the next scene, to make you want to keep watching the movie. Cliffhangers are also used at the end of movies, what this allows the audience to do is to create there own ending in there mind or if there will be a second part to the film.

In this scene from Taken, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) listens in terror as his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) is kidnapped by Albanian sex traffickers in Paris. He confronts one of the kidnappers on the phone, promising him he will stop at nothing to get his daughter back. The voice simply responds with, "Good luck." This is a cliffhanger to the audience because we don't know whats going to happen next or how Liam Neeson is going to save his daughter. This makes the audience want to keep watching the film to find out what happens next. 

More Characteristics of a thriller

Thrillers tend to take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities. For example in Taken the setting is in Paris, Taken 2 is in Istanbul and the Unknown it is set in Berlin. 

The heroes in most thrillers are tend to be known as "hard men", the reason for this is because they are accustomed to danger, for example a policeman. However, they could also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. 

Types of Thrillers

There are loads of different kinds of thrillers. There are legal thrillers, spy thrillers, action/adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller and there are loads more.

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles

Cinematography:

Ufuk

Mise-en-scene:

Billy and Ufuk

Sound:

Billy and Ufuk

Editing:

Ufuk Billy

Title: Catch 45

Tag Line: Thriller

Synopsis:

This is a thriller that involves a dead person and the killer is unknown.

Key Genre Conventions:

Mise-en-scene – Black clothing, dull setting.

Style of editing- Slow pace editing, fast pace editing

Cinematography- Camera angles, techniques and specific shots

Sound-Diegetic, non-diegetic, off screen and on screen sounds

Within this there is a cliff-hanger that is used to make the audience want to keep watching the movie. At the beginning of the scene there is a red hearing due to the fact that no one knows how the killer is. Also, there is an enigma right at the end of the clip as we don't see the killer. Therefore the enigma is unsolved.