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.