The Roles Of My Group:
Pre-production-
Rachel = Script
Zack = Location
Josh = Storyboard
Ellie = Storyboard
Production -
Rachel = Director
Zack = Producer and actor
Josh = Lighting and props
Ellie = Mise-en-scene and actor
Post-production-
Rachel = Edting and final production
Zack = Editing and final production
Josh = Editing and final production
Ellie = Editing and final production
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Thursday, 2 December 2010
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Codes And Conventions Of A Thriller Opening Sequence
Genre: Triller, Horror, Sci-fi, Action etc.
Examples: Jaws, Silence Of The Lambs, Transporter, E.T.
Title sequences are used to attract the audience and tell the audience who was used to produce the film and Who was involved in the production. The title sequences include a running track of the producers name and company and some of the staring actors in the film. The title sequence also uses some digetic soundtrack to create a sence of foreboding and suspence. It can also create a menace feel. One of my favourite thriller openings is Jaws. It is good because it uses all of the enigma codes needed to make a good thriller opening. It uses a soundtrack that creates tention and fright and it also uses the characters in the title sequence. Character is unaware of what is going to happen and that also leaves the audience unaware of what is going to happen.
Examples: Jaws, Silence Of The Lambs, Transporter, E.T.
Title sequences are used to attract the audience and tell the audience who was used to produce the film and Who was involved in the production. The title sequences include a running track of the producers name and company and some of the staring actors in the film. The title sequence also uses some digetic soundtrack to create a sence of foreboding and suspence. It can also create a menace feel. One of my favourite thriller openings is Jaws. It is good because it uses all of the enigma codes needed to make a good thriller opening. It uses a soundtrack that creates tention and fright and it also uses the characters in the title sequence. Character is unaware of what is going to happen and that also leaves the audience unaware of what is going to happen.
Analysis Of A Thriller Opening (own choice) - Secret Window
The opening title sequence of the film the 'secret window' starts with the sound in the background of the car windscreen wipers going back and for. This has started even before the actual picture of the film begins. When the film producers logo starts up, 'Columba' the sound of the wipers are still going on.
The picture then opens with the actor 'Jonny Depp' sat in a car in the snow outside a motel with him just staring into space out of the windscreen. Then some non-digetic sound has been edited into the piece. The sound is a voice over of him talking, he is saying "Turn around" and "Do not go back there", is this meant to represent his thoughts? He then puts the car into reverse and drives back to the motel, so he going against all the things his thoughts were telling him to do. He walks into the reception of the motel and this is shown by a tracking shot and he takes a key to one of the rooms of the motel. The room that his wife is sleeping in. He burst into the room and catches his wife sleeping with another man. There is a really effective shot when Jonny burst in. The camera is situated in the dashboard of the car so we watch him break in from inside the car. This made me feel like i was sat in the car just watching him doing it. When he gets the door open, the camera cuts to the inside of the motel room and there is some digetic sound added. The sound that has been added is a very strong wind like it is blowing through the doorway. I feel it is really effective because it adds a scary effect to the scene and a terrifying atmosphere to the situation and make it more fast pasted in the room. The only voice you hear in this scene is Jonny's when he screams at his wife. You can see them speaking but you cannot hear them over the loud wind. I feel this gave us a sense of terror and fright. Make us worry about what is going to happen next, what he might do. Dramatic music then kicks in when when screams to kill the scene and then the opening title sequence begins. The music is a very heavy press on a piano. And the screen fades to the beginning of the film.
The next shot is the camera flying across a lake towards an old wooden house on the edge. As we are gliding across the names of the cast and crew are edited onto the page and the fade into the picture. There is music score added into the background of the picture, the sound of violins, and these create a sense of tension. There is then a really strange shot in this opening sequence. And an extremely difficult one to do. We go from gliding over the lake to flying around the house and through the top window. i think going through the window is a really good idea for the opening sequence as the film is called the "secret window". We then go through the window and into the top room of the house, around the laptop screen and then down the stairs. The reason why this shot is really difficult is because there were no edits used whatsoever. No cuts were used at all. So it was just one extremely long shot. We then go through the mirror of the house to see him sleeping on the sofa.
The mise-en-scene in the scene is mainly what Jonny Depp is wearing. He is wearing a hat and scarf and a winter coat as I believe it is set in the winter time and snow is falling in the opening shot.
Overall I thought the opening title sequence worked really well and really made you think about what is going on and going to happen next which is what you expect from a thriller film.
Written by Zack Franks.
The picture then opens with the actor 'Jonny Depp' sat in a car in the snow outside a motel with him just staring into space out of the windscreen. Then some non-digetic sound has been edited into the piece. The sound is a voice over of him talking, he is saying "Turn around" and "Do not go back there", is this meant to represent his thoughts? He then puts the car into reverse and drives back to the motel, so he going against all the things his thoughts were telling him to do. He walks into the reception of the motel and this is shown by a tracking shot and he takes a key to one of the rooms of the motel. The room that his wife is sleeping in. He burst into the room and catches his wife sleeping with another man. There is a really effective shot when Jonny burst in. The camera is situated in the dashboard of the car so we watch him break in from inside the car. This made me feel like i was sat in the car just watching him doing it. When he gets the door open, the camera cuts to the inside of the motel room and there is some digetic sound added. The sound that has been added is a very strong wind like it is blowing through the doorway. I feel it is really effective because it adds a scary effect to the scene and a terrifying atmosphere to the situation and make it more fast pasted in the room. The only voice you hear in this scene is Jonny's when he screams at his wife. You can see them speaking but you cannot hear them over the loud wind. I feel this gave us a sense of terror and fright. Make us worry about what is going to happen next, what he might do. Dramatic music then kicks in when when screams to kill the scene and then the opening title sequence begins. The music is a very heavy press on a piano. And the screen fades to the beginning of the film.
The next shot is the camera flying across a lake towards an old wooden house on the edge. As we are gliding across the names of the cast and crew are edited onto the page and the fade into the picture. There is music score added into the background of the picture, the sound of violins, and these create a sense of tension. There is then a really strange shot in this opening sequence. And an extremely difficult one to do. We go from gliding over the lake to flying around the house and through the top window. i think going through the window is a really good idea for the opening sequence as the film is called the "secret window". We then go through the window and into the top room of the house, around the laptop screen and then down the stairs. The reason why this shot is really difficult is because there were no edits used whatsoever. No cuts were used at all. So it was just one extremely long shot. We then go through the mirror of the house to see him sleeping on the sofa.
The mise-en-scene in the scene is mainly what Jonny Depp is wearing. He is wearing a hat and scarf and a winter coat as I believe it is set in the winter time and snow is falling in the opening shot.
Overall I thought the opening title sequence worked really well and really made you think about what is going on and going to happen next which is what you expect from a thriller film.
Written by Zack Franks.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Saul Bass Film Analysis - Vertigo Analysis
As a class we watched the opening title sequence of Alfred Hitchcocks' film 'Vertigo'. I thought the opening title sequence was good because it give off a rather strange feeling. A sence of madness and suspence. It starts off with a close up of a womens face and it slowly zooms in on her eye. One note i made was that she never blinked her eye, so maybe she is in serious shock and she has frozen solid with fear. As it zooms in on her eye the colour of the picture changes from black and white to blood red. I thought this was really affective as we usually associate the colour red with the themes anger or fear, death and blood. So when the picture of her eye turns red we get a feel of fright or terror. What is going to happen next? It holds this still of the close up on her eye for a few seconds for you to really take the picture in, makes us think about what is she still for? and why is her eye turning red? Lines and circles then start to appear from the eye and they are spining around in a leaving you feeling confused and dizzy. It zooms on the eye whilst spining so it plays with our mind. Makes you feel disorientated. We go into the eye as we are spining and the picture goes black as we enter the pupil. This is extremely affective in my opinion because it is like we are travel into the women herself. Maybe it is some kind of flashback? Perhaps this opening sequence is some sort of flashback. You get lost in the picture so it leaves you feeling completely lost in the opening title sequence and wanting to watch the rest of the film. This swirling continues throughout the entire opening sequence, it builds up suspence because we do not know what is going to happen next, is this spining leading to something or is it just to lose focus on the women to lead you into thinking something else. What does this swirling represent? In my opinion I think the swirling represents madness and confusion. Saul Bass (the graphic designer of the title sequence) wants you to get lost in the opening so that we watch the rest of film to find out what is happening, why the swirling went on in the first place. Maybe the madness stands for some sort of psycho path who is out to kill the women whos eye we went into? Or maybe the killer is the women who stars in the opening titles?
Here is a picture from the opening title sequence of 'Vertigo': Picture from Google.com
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Saul Bass Research
Saul Bass was born in May 8th 1920, in New York City. Bass was an American graphic designer and Academy Award-winning filmmaker, but he is best known for his design on animated motion picture title sequences. During his 40-year career he worked for some of Hollywood's greatest film starters, including most notably Alfred Hitchcock. Bass studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan until attending classes with Gyorgy Kepes at Brooklyn College. Whilst he was at Brooklyn Collage, he was spotted by a man called Otto Preminger for his graphic design work and was asked by him to create a title sequence as well for films because he was so impressed with his work. This was Saul Bass' first opportunity and the start of his career. One of the title sequences we looked at by Saul Bass was Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho. Psycho is a 1960 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film Psycho is best known for its shower scene with the music score of the screeching violins playing in the background and for its amount of fast cuts that give off a frightening feel. The opening title sequence for Psycho is the lines sweeping across the screen. I think this is a very affective opening sequence because it gives a sense of confusion and suspense and we do not know what is going to happen. Here is the poster by Saul Bass for Psycho: (Top 1960) (Bottom 2008) Pictures from Google.com
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Thriller Mood Board
Here is my Thriller Mood Board: I put this together as part of my course work and to get myself a higher grade over all this year. It includes a number of images from different thriller and thriller/horror films including one of Alfred Hitchcock's most famous films "Psycho" and fellow famous film "Vertigo".
The difinition of a thriller: A thriller is a genre of a film that builds up tention and suspence without actually showing anything scary or horrific.
The definition of a horror: A horror is a genre of a film that uses gore, violance and special effects to scare people. The purpose of the film is to scare.
Produced by Zack Franks.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Research To Date:
Week 1: We found out how to operate the cameras and the tripod. I learnt how to use the camera properly and how to set it up on the tripod using the clip underneath. Also learning how to set the date and time and how to rewind the film. We had to rewind the film before we started otherwise we would be filming over fellow pupils work as the whole department shares the cameras.
Week 2: Continuity sequences discussed. We also did a little exercise with the cameras to learn the different camera angles, shots etc. I learnt a number of different angles and types of shot e.g. CU is a close up and a high angle shot is looking down on a person or thing. Here are some of the shots we practised ready for the filming of the continuity: Picture from Google.com
Week 3: We decided what groups that we would be in for the next few lesson to do a continuity filming piece.
Week 4: We drew out our story board for the continiuty piece. How we were going to do it and where. What angles are we going to use? How are we going to make it flow? We came up with ideas of stories that we could do just to give the short flim a flow. "The Eyebrow" I learnt how to draw a story board for the continuity film. The order our camera shots and how we are going to film it. Here is an example of a story board: Picture from Google.com
Week 5: On the 12th October we did the filming of the continuity piece. Unfortunately Josh (a member of our group) was not in to do the filming so we did the filming a man down which made it a little harder. I learnt a number of different camera skills including a number of shots e.g CU and ESTBL. Also a number of different angles were used like a low angle shot looking up some stairs and a high angle shot looking down on people walking up the stairs. We continued with "The Eyebrow" story to give it a story to follow and I feel that the filming went really well. We did the filming in the english block because there was a lot of scenery and a number of shots could be used like a high angle shot can be used at the top of the stairs and a match on action shot with the doors to the class rooms. Due to us filming in a school it was hard as fellow pupils and staff kept getting in the shots which meant we had to do the shot again. Eventually we got the filming complete.
Week 6: We discussing in our groups what went well in the piece and what didn't. How could we improve the continuity exercise. What can be done to make it flow more? We uploaded the videos through the firewires. And we began editing the piece and putting it all together on the apple macs. I learnt how to use IMovie on the apple mac and how to use the editor. I learnt how to make a piece flow using jump cuts and cutting shots down.
Week 7: HALF TERM
Week 4: We drew out our story board for the continiuty piece. How we were going to do it and where. What angles are we going to use? How are we going to make it flow? We came up with ideas of stories that we could do just to give the short flim a flow. "The Eyebrow" I learnt how to draw a story board for the continuity film. The order our camera shots and how we are going to film it. Here is an example of a story board: Picture from Google.com
Week 5: On the 12th October we did the filming of the continuity piece. Unfortunately Josh (a member of our group) was not in to do the filming so we did the filming a man down which made it a little harder. I learnt a number of different camera skills including a number of shots e.g CU and ESTBL. Also a number of different angles were used like a low angle shot looking up some stairs and a high angle shot looking down on people walking up the stairs. We continued with "The Eyebrow" story to give it a story to follow and I feel that the filming went really well. We did the filming in the english block because there was a lot of scenery and a number of shots could be used like a high angle shot can be used at the top of the stairs and a match on action shot with the doors to the class rooms. Due to us filming in a school it was hard as fellow pupils and staff kept getting in the shots which meant we had to do the shot again. Eventually we got the filming complete.
Week 6: We discussing in our groups what went well in the piece and what didn't. How could we improve the continuity exercise. What can be done to make it flow more? We uploaded the videos through the firewires. And we began editing the piece and putting it all together on the apple macs. I learnt how to use IMovie on the apple mac and how to use the editor. I learnt how to make a piece flow using jump cuts and cutting shots down.
Week 7: HALF TERM
Week 8: We finished the editing of our continuity piece of filming and watched it back as a group and made notes on how we could improve next time when filming for our thriller opening title sequence. We also looked at title opening sequences of thrillers by Saul Bass that we are currently studying and researching. We looked at the opening of the film 'Veritgo' and 'Psycho'. Psycho is well known for its opening title sequence for the lines crossing the stage and also the famour shower scene in the film. The film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and the title sequence and graphic design by Saul Bass.
Week 9: On the 10th of November we went on a trip to the Atrium in Cardiff and we learnt more about filming and opening title sequences for a thriller film. I found the trip very usful and throughly enjoyed the day out. I feel that it has helped me to understand more about film and the different aspects of film such as camera angles and shots, the mise-en-scene, editing and sound effects. During the day we did an exercise to get a further understanding of film. In groups of four we had to make the title opening sequence for a thriller film using no editing. Just simply filming and rewinding to try and make the opening sequence. I think this went very well and will help me for any future filming.
Week 10: We have now started to look into the opening title sequences of other films such as "The Secret Window" We looked at how the different camera shots were used to give of this thriller genre. There was one shot in the secret window which was really affective. A crain shot was used from outside the house going through the top window and into the living room with no cut edits whatsoever. It was an incredible shot to use because it made you feel like you were almost flying into the house.
Week 11: David Ball came in to our media studies lesson to give us a detailed talk on thriller films and how important each role is to the production. David Ball is a professional film producer and has done films such as 'Up and Under'. I found his talk very interesting and it has helped me to understand how important each person is to the production and how important it is to record every decision made. I also learnt about different camera shots and angles to give the best effects for our thriller opening title sequence when we come to filming in our groups.
Week 12: We all have our groups picked ready for the production of our thriller opening title sequence and we now have to decide what members were best for each role. For the pre-production: I am the producer. Rachel is the director. Josh is the storyboard producer and so is Ellie. And for our actually filming production: I am producer and actor. Rachel is director. Josh is mise-en-scene. and Ellie is mise-en-scene and actor.
Week 13: We had a filming workshop where two men came into school and taught us more about filming and what oppertunities are avalible in the world of media.
Week 14: XMAS HOLIDAY
Week 15: XMAS HOLIDAY
Week 16: I went out with one of my fellow group members Josh Christopher to our location of the filming which is my house. We took some location shots that i will be putting on my blog within a few days. We took the location shots to gain extra marks and to give us some ideas of other shots we could include for example we are planing on having a shot through the piano.
Week 17: One of my roles in my group production manager so i am in charge of the camera and other equipment, so i have taken all the equipment and got it all ready for us to start filming on sunday the 30th January. And we have also put together a shot list (a running order of the list for our filming).
Week 18: We found it rather difficult as a group to find a dat when we were all free but the best days we found were on the 5th and 6th of Feb. On that weekend we got all the filming done and we can now edit the film.
Week 9: On the 10th of November we went on a trip to the Atrium in Cardiff and we learnt more about filming and opening title sequences for a thriller film. I found the trip very usful and throughly enjoyed the day out. I feel that it has helped me to understand more about film and the different aspects of film such as camera angles and shots, the mise-en-scene, editing and sound effects. During the day we did an exercise to get a further understanding of film. In groups of four we had to make the title opening sequence for a thriller film using no editing. Just simply filming and rewinding to try and make the opening sequence. I think this went very well and will help me for any future filming.
Week 10: We have now started to look into the opening title sequences of other films such as "The Secret Window" We looked at how the different camera shots were used to give of this thriller genre. There was one shot in the secret window which was really affective. A crain shot was used from outside the house going through the top window and into the living room with no cut edits whatsoever. It was an incredible shot to use because it made you feel like you were almost flying into the house.
Week 11: David Ball came in to our media studies lesson to give us a detailed talk on thriller films and how important each role is to the production. David Ball is a professional film producer and has done films such as 'Up and Under'. I found his talk very interesting and it has helped me to understand how important each person is to the production and how important it is to record every decision made. I also learnt about different camera shots and angles to give the best effects for our thriller opening title sequence when we come to filming in our groups.
Week 12: We all have our groups picked ready for the production of our thriller opening title sequence and we now have to decide what members were best for each role. For the pre-production: I am the producer. Rachel is the director. Josh is the storyboard producer and so is Ellie. And for our actually filming production: I am producer and actor. Rachel is director. Josh is mise-en-scene. and Ellie is mise-en-scene and actor.
Week 13: We had a filming workshop where two men came into school and taught us more about filming and what oppertunities are avalible in the world of media.
Week 14: XMAS HOLIDAY
Week 15: XMAS HOLIDAY
Week 16: I went out with one of my fellow group members Josh Christopher to our location of the filming which is my house. We took some location shots that i will be putting on my blog within a few days. We took the location shots to gain extra marks and to give us some ideas of other shots we could include for example we are planing on having a shot through the piano.
Week 17: One of my roles in my group production manager so i am in charge of the camera and other equipment, so i have taken all the equipment and got it all ready for us to start filming on sunday the 30th January. And we have also put together a shot list (a running order of the list for our filming).
Week 18: We found it rather difficult as a group to find a dat when we were all free but the best days we found were on the 5th and 6th of Feb. On that weekend we got all the filming done and we can now edit the film.
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