Video diary

Here is a video diary featuring myself and my partner for making my thriller film and in this video diary you will hear us talking about what we had done on that day in terms of filming and just generally about the thriller what we liked about it and what we thought that we could improve on to make it better.
We spoke on our strengths and weaknesses and this was pretty easy as we were clear on what needed to change and what could stay , we could on certain shots that we liked and the effects on it .One of the things we spoke about was the match on action and the effect we felt it had on the piece the video is below to watch and listen to.

Inspiration post #2

Blue Valentine

Below will be a link to the  video of the ending credits for a film which goes by the name of " Blue Valentine" and what it is that I like about this particular video is there is a sort of air of mystery created and this is done through the darkness and what inspires me the most about this is that it is linked to the idea that I had for my thriller opening with the fact that there is an air of mystery of the main character in my thriller opening . Although in blue valentine the air of mystery is created differently to how I imagined it for my thriller it still inspired because it showed me the real effect that this had on filming so it helped me in making my decision to go through with the  idea of having that air of mystery within my thriller opening.

Looking more closely into one picture you can see how behind the darkness there are two people there lovers most probably but what I like most about this as explained before is how it creates the air of mystery and that is exactly what my group is looking for  so this is of quite inspiration to me.

Text font choices

In the making of the thriller opening me and the other member in my group had to think about what type of font we wanted for our thriller film and this is key because there are many fonts that are associated with thriller films and that is what we decided to look up at first so after looking we came across some fonts such as these below:

These fonts we liked but once we looked at it in our opening we didn't really feel that it fit within our piece and one of the reasons being that we didnt think that we needed such a sharp font so then after messing around with many different fonts we then came across the font that we both agreed was the best and that funny enough was just a plain text font similar to the one below:

Thriller Treatment ( New)

My thriller starts off with two knives on the floor and some fingerless gym gloves  then gradually the camera rises up upon the main character and we see him twitching and moving about in his bed as if he is having some sort of nightmare, there is then a cut to outside where we can see it is dark and we then see somebody running across fast dressed in all black and a quick flash on a sign that has the word "Danger" written on it and it then jumps back to the boy in his bedroom as he is woken up by these nightmares and is just sitting up straight facing forwards with his head down rubbing his hands together then suddenly sharply looking up and forwards to giving the audience a jump, after that  he looks up towards a fan that seems as if it is irritating him so he gets up to go and turn it off and then reaches for some knives on the desk ( not the ones we see at the beginning) and put them into  his bag he will then put on his jacket and head out. We used the technique of match on action to film the boy leaving his room going down the stairs and leaving his house . As the boy leaves his house we see a camera angle from around the corner peeking round on him as if he is being followed by somebody and the boy is walking off through an alley way and in the background we see a dark figure dressed in all black just standing there with his hands crossed and we cannot see his face  building up tension leaving the audience thinking what will happen. Finally as the boy is walking through the alley  there will be a point of view shot on the attacker creeping up on the boy and as he gets close the boy stops turns his head slightly and then the attacker slams his hand on the boys shoulder then there will be a blackout with the name of the thriller coming up shortly after.

Analysis of titles and font choice

 
One example of a good opening title is the one of Final Destination 5 and this is because throughout the titles everything is getting smashed away and this was effective as it is showing the danger of what is to occur in the film .



Here are some images that show how the titles come in , they come in and it is almost as if glass  smashes it  away onto the next title and these nine pictures above show the titles and the point in which it is smashed up showing that damage is done in the film . In terms of font choice the font is considered to be quite basic and I think this best complements what is going on around the because with all that smashing going on if there was to be a more fancy font it would not really stand out in this scenario so by having it basic and bold it just keeps your eye on what the titles say but at the same time keeps you aware of what is going on outside if the titles (so in this case it would be the glass smashing). 

Another example of the font choices on titles being good could be from catch me if you can the titles in this one are good in the way that they blend in with the scenes going on within the opening title sequence.

Looking at the the pictures above you can tell that the font choice on the the titles for this is that on some of the letters it extends off to make up something within the scene, at first sight it may not look like this but if you look into it for example look at the picture on the right in the middle the letters in the titles extend and go onto make the ladder of a swimming pool and I like this because it is different and is a very good idea and very effective. Just from looking at the opening title sequence we can tell that the film is set or features in an airport at some stage of the film as where it says catch me if you can you can see the aeroplane flying past and some of the other screenshots it is as if the setting behind the titles are places within an airport ( some of them)



Props and Costume

I am going to be speaking about the props and costumes that will be used for my thriller and I am going to explain why I have chosen each thing and the effect that I want it to have. My thriller is going to be a  sort of mystery thriller so that it the reasoning for some of the props and costumes.Just by the props and clothing a character has you an tell what sort of person that character is.

In terms of props things that will be used within the thriller will be knives, gym  gloves ( finger less) and a bag and the use of these three props that the main character possesses shows that he is a crazy and mysterious sort of person.       

The use of the gym gloves  in the piece could suggest that the main character is about to get into some trouble and may get into some sort of danger whether it be in a fight or something much more serious as he also has knives on him as well .

The use of the prop of the knives is key as it is said you can tell by the props and/or costume a character has you can tell the sort of person they are and the fact that the main character has knives with him in his bedroom and puts some in his bag tells you that he is a crazy character and that  is exactly what our group wanted to portray him as.

The main character will be wearing a grey t-shirt with black tracksuit bottoms and will later on be wearing a grey and black jacket not only was this selected because it is stereotypical clothing for a teenage boy but the colour choices for clothing of black and grey is a connotation of darkness and being dull and these are two things that this character is associated with.

Shot list

I am going to talk you through all of the different shots that can be used in media and talk about how or where it may be used in filming giving you  examples of the shots through images. Most of the shots in this list are all shots that can be used in  thriller opening  some more than others for examples close ups to show facial expressions , point of view and over the shoulder shots will be very effective just to name a few.


Long shot- This is the angle which offers a realistic scale of a human or object , the shot also offers some detail if what is behind the character and the effect of a shot like this is to make it look more realistic and to see more of the surroundings.

Extreme long shot-  Used to establish a scene or mood and you often find this shot used in action adventure films and this shot is effective in giving you a chance to see  more of the scenery.

Close up-  When you just want to focus on a characters face or an object you would use a close up and you would use this shot because this shot best shows the emotion of the character so you can tell how they are feeling.

Extreme close up-  This is similar to a close up but usually fits the whole frame , the audience  can only see a feature of a character  or a object e.g. the eyes.

Establishing shot-A shot that establishes the scene , often giving the viewer information about where the scene is set, is often a wide/long shot at the beginning of the scene.

Point of view-    This shot is filmed to show what a character will be able to see hence the name of the shot point of view the effect of having a shot like this would be that it gives you an insight into what the character can see .

Over the shoulder shot-  From this shot you can expect to watch the action as if you are the character who's shoulder the camera is over  this can also give you the sense that the character is being followed.

Birds eye view-  The  angle from up above and shows you what the scene looks like from above and this gives you a summary of the scene showing where various characters are.

Low angle-  This shot is filmed at ground level, looking up at an object or character.Used to make an character look bigger and more superior.

High angle- Similar to a birds eye view however a crane will be used to show the shot above of a character or an object and this shot is used to make a character look/feel small and vulnerable.

Middle shot-  Shown the  character from the waist up with a little bit of  a zoom and this is so the audience can see the characters body language and what is around them

Panoramic-  This angle uses a series of photographs to create a wide shot this a way of getting a detailed shot and establishing the scene.

Reaction shot- A shot that shows the reaction of a character either to another character or an event within the sequence.

Overhead shot-  A type of camera shot in which the camera is positioned above the character, action or object being filmed.

Opening Post

Hello my name is Daniel Porter-Alexander and this is my blog page and during the course of the year I am going to keep you updated on all my work that I am doing to do with the creation of my opening scene for my thriller opening. I will be posting things using all different types of technology and I will be posting things like video diaries updating you on how my filming is going and what I like about it and what I think could be improved, i'll also be speaking about what sort of things inspire me from others films not just thrillers and I will be given analysis' on some of them. I will be gathering research and reporting back on what I have found out and talking about the camera that I am  using to film my thriller and the tripod as well.  As I gain experience and knowledge from my inspirations i am going to make a thriller opening of my own.

Tripod

In the same lesson in which we learnt all about setting up the camera  we also learnt how to set up the tripod we were shown how to set it up the different lengths and heights  and what effect it had in how we could perform different shots depending on the the height of the tripod. There will be some pictures below showing the tripod and showing it set up. Our teacher explained as well how we could have the camera up on the tripod and spin it round with the stick that is sticking out this is better than just turning around the camera yourself with your hands because then you will get a much more smooth turn and the shots will be more clear because if you was to turn the camera around yourself you it will be a bit shaky and it may not  all be on the same level but on the tripod all  you would have to do just turn the stick around on the tripod.

 Above you can see pictures of the tripod that we will be using throughout our filming periods and you see us setting up the tripod in practice for when we went off in our groups.

Camera

Beforehand we started to film our thriller opening the class were shown the two cameras that we will be using to film with we were shown how the cameras functioned and the different effects it could do, we also learnt how to set up the cameras on the tripod properly and how to keep it steady. In the pictures that are going to be below you will see us learning how to set up the cameras up on the tripod and performing all what we had learnt putting it into practice ourselves. In the pictures below we are also learning how to change the lighting effects and all the filters and this was effective as it had shown us how it made the quality of the filming much better so we could use it and be comfortable in doing so when we went off to film in our group, each person had a go of looking at the different function so everyone was confident and also made it a team effort. Our teacher also walked us through the settings that we shouldn't use or what won't be effective for us and this was also very helpful because when trying them we could recognize how that would effect our quality of filming and would also effect our final grade.

This is one of the cameras that were available for use to use whilst filming and the pictures above show u setting it up on in preparation for when we went off to go and film our thriller opening. 

Analysis of Production logos

Production Logos are logos which are used by production companies and movie studios and they do this because this is a way of branding what it is that they produce. In most of the effective production logos they feature Sound effects and moving images these are key and make it effective as it is intriguing towards the audiences and opens the movie well from the start.

Some of the big production logos known to date around the world are pictured below:

The Production Logo is a very effective logo in the sense that it meaningful and what I like about the logo is that it is so simple but very effective at the same time the black  background ( possibly showing space) also after doing research and looking into  other examples of production logos.

Looking more into detail on the DreamWorks Production Logo I really like this production logo and this is very effective as it relates to the type of films that they produce , they mainly produce films for younger children and what makes their logo much more effective is the boy that is sitting on the moon could symbolize that their are a production company producing films for kids.  Also the name of the company also links into the actual logo as the boy sitting on the moon up in the sky may connote innocence which is associated with children. The use of the Word 'Dream' tells us  what the production is all about and the sort of things they produce.

Target Audience Profile

Every film genre have there different target audiences some genres with a larger range than others so I am going to speak about the sort of target audience I am looking for and the audience I think will be attracted to my thriller opening.

Age:16+
Gender: Both
Education: College and Sixth form students
Interests:Likes watching thriller films and being social with their friends

The reason for our target audience being college and sixth form students is because that is the most  common group of people that watch majority of thriller films and go to the cinema to watch them as that is what interests them so it is clear to me that this is the sort of audience I should target.
Another reason to why this is such  a great target audience is because after they have seen my film I want to be spreading the word to their other friends and then it can get around much more quicker and easier as groups of friends will be telling others about the film .

The picture above are  the types of audience that i'm looking  to target and this group also look very sociable and look like a group of friends that go out to the cinema to watch films so I think that my film will be good for them to watch.