Feedback for Practical

An extremely successful sequence. Effective use of lighting (shadows in particular) Follwed hidden identity conventions which built suspense. Good variety of pace in terms of editing. Soundtrack is also extremely effective. Flash of light that introduces the tiles is very successful and it woul;d be good for you to experiement with this sort of effect more in the the next project (if appropriate to the genre). Effective use of out of focus shots which encourages the spectator to feel uneasy. Well done.

Production Meeting 7

Today we have been doing our final editing. We have finished our title sequence and are very happy with the finished product. 

Blog Of The Week

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Evaluation Notes

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- The music is a generic convention because it is a simple looped composition.
- It creates suspense in the sequence and helps to link the spectator to the scene.
- We have used one male character in our sequence which is stereotypical towards males.
- We used artificial light which increased tension in the scene.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
-It represents isolation of individuals, emphasising that some people have no social groups, and the effect that this can have on someone.
-It also has a stereotypical view of a male, as we chose to use a male instead of a female as this is a more traditional view of a male.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
-I think that our film would be for internet use only, I feel that it is not professional enough to go into a cinema or picture house. Therefore I feel that the film should be presented on the internet for people to view. Unless it was filmed and produced professionally, then this is the place for our film.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
-I think that young adults are our target audience as it is definitely not a child’s film but would not be suitable for the elderly either. Young adults would be our target group but I think that adults in general would suit this film.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
-The suspense and tension allow the spectator to get involved in the sequence and try to understand the meaning of what is happening.
-This targets young adults as it lets them use their mind and they are more capable of trying to figure out aims and understanding.
-It specifically has confusing things in the sequence as it targets this audience.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
-The dolly was too big to fit in the media room so we had to do the filming hand held.
-The programmes were useful

7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
-I have learnt that changing shots can be more effective.
-The use of different shots and how they can be used.


Here are just a few ideas for our group to get us started on the evaluation. We are all writing our own evaluation but we need to include the same things. This is just guidlines for understanding the questions.

Our Ideas For Thriller Conventions

• To create suspence and tension. This can be created through many different media techiniques, such as close ups, for example, somebodys face or hands. The music creates most suspence by using eerie or tension creating music, it reflects the mind of character, this is to make the spectator uncomfortable. Lighting to reflect mood and create the mise-en-scene, usually dim lighting etc. We feel that in our sequence suspence and tension is created.
• Good/bad character structure, this is sometimes not very clear. In our sequence we feel that this is a clear convention.
• Visual and narrative hints - motifs
• Plot, the sequence should have a twist in the narrative and make it a mystery to get the spectator thinking.
• You need to create a enigma around a situation or a character. The narrative can be based around the protagonists flaw so he/she is held back in some way.
• Music, a non-diagetic soundtrack which creates the atmosphere and suspense in the sequence. Short titles to create suspense, maybe indicating the flaw or something to do with the film narrative. For example 'Vertigo'
• The main indetity of the character should be questioned. For example, if the character is an evil or kind character.
• Flashbacks could be used to create suspense and create the effect of confusion to keep the spectator interested and wanting more.

Evaluation Questions

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Thriller Rough Cut

This is our rough cut for our thriller title sequence.

We know that this is only rough which is why the sequence is long, we realise that we need to cut out many shots that are not needed and make the sequence less then two minutes long. 

The shots are all in order and the soundtrack is made to go with the sequence. We need to edit the shots to make them ore continuous and edit the soundtrack to fit in. The titles are just placed into the sequence at the moment, however, we need to make them more like titles, so we need to edit them.

In a group discussion along with Emma, we decided on the following improvements:

• Shorten the sequence by at least one minute
• Change the duration of the shots to add suspense and variety
• Edit the titles to make them more interesting and effective
• Edit the soundtrack to fit in with the sequence and give it more suspense
• We need to link shots together with fades and other effects.  

List Of Shots Used

Here is a list of the type of shots we used:

• Match on action. We thought this would be effective as the spectators would be in two situations at once. This makes the spectator think about both scenes and try and piece them together. It shows how real life is relevent as many situations happen all at once and this is how tension is created. It flicks between two different scenes to put the spectator in suspence.
• Close ups.This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a detail of mise en scene. This shot magnifies the object and shows the importance of things. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character. In reality, we only let people that we really trust get that close to our face e.g mothers, children and lovers, usually - so a close up of a face is a very intimate shot. This is effective as it is used to make the spectator feel extra comfortable or extremely uncomfortable about a character.
• Birds eye view. This shows a scene from directly overhead, a very unnatural and strange angle. Familiar objects viewed from this angle might seem totally unrecognisable at first. This shot does, however, put the audience in a godlike position, looking down on the action. People can be made to look insignificant, ant-like, part of a wider scheme of things.
• Hand held shots. It gives a jerky, ragged effect, totally at odds with the organised smoothness of a dolly shot, and is favoured by filmmakers looking for a gritty realism which involves the viewer very closely with a scene.
• We thought about using a dolly to move around our character whilst also moving upwards to get his whole body, but we filmed in the media studios and it was too small to fit the dolly in it, so we didnt use a dolly, we filmed hand-held, we thought this would be effective as the character is not still in the sequence so we thought the camera shouldnt be, it helps put the spectator into the characters position.

Costumes

We didnt really have a theme for costumes as we were mostly using close up shots so didnt feel the need to have proper costumes.
The male sitting on the stool is wearing a look a like strait jacket, which still looks as effective as it would if it was a real jacket, unfortunately we could not get hold of a strait jacket so we used a coat instead that looked similar.
The shots are mostly close up, and in the dark, so the male is just wearing a dark pair of jeans and a white jacket, no one could tell the difference, which is why we thought to do this. The male is in bare feet. We thought this would be effective as shoes would not look as good in the frame.
The male sitting at the table is wearing a dark jacket with a hood so we can not identify him, and thats basicly all we see of this character so the costumes were not as important.

Possible Title Thoughts

Here are some possible titles that we thought about and the one we chose:

• A Lost Soul
• A Broken Mind
• Destroyed
• Psycho
• Silenced
• An Empty Mind

We chose to use A Broken Mind for our film as this is the one we liked the best and thought had the most relevance.

Production Meeting 6

We have decided that all our filming has been filmed so in todays meeting we will edit our sequence and upload our rough cut to our blog.Our soundtrack is almost finished, however, we need to fit it into our sequence. We will edit our sequence and put it in the right order and add the soundtrack for our rough cut. we will then edit it thoroughly so it looks almost professional.

The music has to fit in with our sequence and we need to edit the soundtrack to do this.
We looked at fonts today to try and find a decent font to use for our titles... here are a few that we liked:

We are very pleased to be nominated for blog of the week as we have all worked very hard on our blog. :)

Analysis Of Student Thriller

We analysed a student thriller to see what expectations we need to consider when producing our thriller. This is what i analysed:

Camerawork: There is many repeated shots to create effect of repetition, to show the spectator that the certain shot is relevent. The shot is being emphasised to keep the spectator wondering about what is happening. The producers of this want the spectator to make relations to a certaing shot. There are close ups of peoples legs and feet to emphasis that the spectator can not see the charactors face, this also keeps the spectator wondering about who the people are in the sequence and what they are doing, it is very important to keep the spectator guessing, and unaware of what is happening. The producers do not want to give away everything before the film has started which is why this is effective. There is a close up of someones eyes, to show their emotion, to keep the spectator aware of the mood of the sequence, this is an important thing to do, so the spectator is interested and is set up for the rest of the film. the opening sequence has to set the mood for the film, and this sequence does. The shots are very dark which may sugest uncertainty whihc could be effective in many ways. The handheld camera creates the effect of movement, it keeps the spectator on the edge of the seat. The producers of this sequence has done exactly that by keeps the spectator involved and interested in what is going to happen.

Editing: There are fades and transitions used to keep the film continual, to create the effect of continuous editing. The transitions are a perfect chance to put in the titles, which in this sequence are good. In one shot of people walking, the pace is slowed down and the shot is in slow motion, this automatically makes the spectator think about the pace to come in the film, the pace is slowed down and speeded up al the way through this sequence, this can be good as it keeps the spectator interested. Some shots have been edited to be black and white, this could create the effect of darkness and uncertainty. It may give the spectator a feel of a colourless picture, which could also set the mood as the mood given out is dim.

Sound: At the beginning of the sequence the sound is really fast paced, this is an instant set for a pace but then throughtout the sequence the pace is slowed down and speeded up. This is done by a variety of shots included slow motion and change in music, in some parts of the sequence the shots are slow paced and the music is slow paced, but in other parts the music is fast and the shots are fast. This shows that the producers have really thought about what mood they want to set and done this in an effective way.

Mise-en-scene: The titles over the picture creates the effect of making the spectator read both the titles and get what is happening in the sequence, this is effective as it helps the spectator link the shots together. The titles are also shown over blank screens which could also be effective as it isolates them to help the spectator concentrate on the titles without linking them to the picture. The sequence has an over all good plot, which is presneted nicely with the shot durations etc. The cliffhanger at the end is really effective as it keeps the spectator wanting more, which is what a title sequence is supposed to do, it makes the spectator want to watch the whole film and put the pieces together. The clothing and settings are kept to a minimal, which suggests that they wanted the spectator to guess the locations, the shots were mostly close ups so you didnt see much of the locations anyway, this could be effective as the spectator is left on the edge of their seat wanting to watch more.

Overall, this sequence has been an influence, as we have an idea of how to produce our title sequence, it helps us to understand properly the point of a title sequence and what effect it can have on the spectator. We will takes points from this sequence and use them to construct our own title sequence. It has been a big influence on us.

Actual Props and Locations

This is another of our locations, we are filming Scott at a table, we are planning on using these clips as flickering images to create the effect of making the spectator unaware of what is happening. These are also the props we are using to place on the table, to make the spectator wonder what the male is doing.

This is the table we are using, it contains a rope, empty film cases and an old broken camera, this is suggesting to the spectator that the male is some kind of psycho man. The table has blood stains on it to make the spectator think he has done something wrong, this is flickering images that link to the male in the empty room. These are linked as its the same male, the male at the table is before the man sitting in the room, to make the spectator wonder what he has done wrong to end up isolated in a room, by himself. We decided not to use a lighter and a knife as this would mean bringing a knife into college, which may cause some problems, we also decided to use a pen and paper, so the character can draw a picture, a childs picture, to suggest he is a psycho. We were planning on using crayons, but couldnt get hold of any so we used a pencil instead, which will still contain the same effect we were planning.

Before we started filming we made sure we had pictures of our locations and props to show what we were going to use and where:

This is a picture of one of our locations, this is where we will be filming most of our main shots.The dark room is to emphasis the isolation of the character, and show that he is in a dark room by himself.

The stall suggests that he is not worthy of anything more, to suggest he is there for a good reason.

The lighting in this picture is natural lighting but as a group we decided to use artificial lighting as this would make our editing process easier, so every shot will have the same lighting. If the lighting was natural we would have all different types of lighting which would look odd.

Blog of the Week Nomination

Just a little note to say I have nominated you for Blog of the Week so keep your eyes open. This blog is excellent. Well done. EMC

Thriller Deadlines

We are fully aware of the thriller deadlines:

1. End of the last lesson of w/c 24th November: ANIMATIC DEADLINE.
2. End of the last lesson of w/c 8th December: ROUGHCUT DEADLINE.
3. End of 1st/ 2nd lesson of w/c 15th December: FINAL CUT DEADLINE.
4. 9am 19th December COMPLETED EVALUATION POWERPOINT TO MOODLE.

Influences On The Soundtrack...

Today i watch a student produced film named Grounded to get some ideas of what to incorperate into the soundtrack for our very own soundtrack. The film gives me an insight into what i should include. Grounded really creates a lot of senses of atmosphere in the viewers mind with dull aching sounds which really create a sense of pain. The soundtrack in Grounded is difficult to listen to because of the screeching and painful sounds which are used in it, and i have found out that a soundtrack with high piching noises and dull drones makes the viewer uncomfortable so i am going to use this idea in my soundtrack.

Production Meeting 5

Today we checked out the studio where we will be filming and we found out that there is a black studio and a white studio. We have decided to use both but for the two different situations. With the black room we will film the guy sitting on the stool and in the white room we will film the guy at the table. This is a big contrast as it sets two different moods for the same guy.
We will get pictures of each room to show as evidence.

We have decided that with the lighting we will either use a bulb to emphasis the situation which will put all the attention on the male. This will help set the mood of isolation for the film. The title sequence is really important in setting the mood for the film, which is why we are considering how to use lighting to emphasis this. We also thought about using natural light to get the effect of realism. We could play around with the blinds in the studio to make the light how we want it to look. We thought that using lighting such a as bulb would help us when it comes to editing as the lighting would be the same in every screen, whereas if we used natural lighting which changes all the time could be hard when it comes to editing because every screen would have different shades of light.

Animatic Feedback

We watched the classes animatic sequences to give them feedback and here is the feedback that we received.

"Shots were fast paced which sets the mood for the title sequence".
People thought this was a positive element as they thought it showed detachment from the main sequence drawing the mind away.


"The spaced out titles shows isolation which emphasis' the story line and sets the mood"
The class thought we put a lot of consideration into our title sequence and believed when fully edited will look professional.


"They had a good sense of how to build suspense with techniques by using different shot types and durations. They have the strengths of a titles sequence with different angles and shot types. They have a good sense of themes and identity and are good at representing it. They have strong imagery"

We had mostly positive feedback feedback from the class although someone did mention that our titles were too fast and hard to read. We have already taken this into consideration as we know it is only a rough cut and not the actual title sequence. We realize that this animatic will help us in our production and have understood that we will have a lot longer to edit when it comes to the final production. We only had a set amount of time to edit this animatic so it is not perfect!

Overall Plan

We now have a good idea of the production of our thriller title sequence.
The aims are to keep the spectator interested and involved in the sequence. The purpose of a title sequence is to establish the mood and the visual charactor or the film, to introduce the spectator to some of these elements:

• Characters
• Locations
• Narrative
• Plot
• Themes
• Genre
• Visual style

Looking back at thriller conventions we have A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions. Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations. A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved. Protagonist with a ‘flaw’ which is exploited by the antagonist. Titles reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist’s psychological state.

We plan to film like our storyboard, but in more detail. We hope that our sequence goes to plan. We will have soon uploaded images of our loacations and actual props.

Animatic

We spent this lesson doing our animatic sequence....

We tried to make the video as realistic as possible, however this made it incredibly boring to watch. The shot durations are really long which makes the video realistic. The shots will obviously be longer and more thought out when we actually film our sequence. At the moment we have considered almost everything we need to start filming which is a good position to be in at the moment. We are soon going to start filming where we will fit everything together. The animatic sequence is not exactly what we want our film title sequence to look like but as it is our first sequence that we have produced it is only a rough copy, which is ok at the moment. When we begin to film our sequence it will be a lot easier to understand and hopefully it will turn out like we want it to.

Animatic Storyboard

This is our storyboard animatic...

This is our animatic storyboard, we spent a long while producing this as we put a lot of thought into it. It gave us an idea of what we were going to produce with our final sequence, it helped us get the shot durations and simply putting the sequence together. It helped us a lot as it showed us a draft of our final sequence. Although we knew our sequence would be totally different it gave us an idea of what was to be included. It made us think about how the shots were going to be filmed and at what angles. We got an overall idea of our final production.

Production Meeting 4

Today we took pictures of our animatic, which will be uploaded soon, and made into a small animatic, but realistic, video of our story board. This should give us a real idea of how our title sequence will fit together. It will help us to understand the shot durations etc.

We also further discussed our ideas. We decided to call the title sequence 'A Broken Mind'

This fits in with our sequence as it is relevant to our thoughts and ideas.

we were inspired by a video clip called 'The eye' Some of the ideas from this clip gave us the ideas that would help us construct our title sequence, the hospitals sequence especially gave us the theme of white.

fG

Costumes

We have not yet fully discussed what costumes are going to be included but we have thought about character ones costume. We thought about putting him on a stall in a plain white room wearing all white... this creates the effect of purity and isolation. This helps the charactor think about why he is there.
This also sets the mood for the film as it produces the thought that the male is there for an unknown reason, and as he is in all whites, may suggest he is innocent, this may not be the case, however, it is put across to the spectator as this assumption.
The other costumes have not yet been decided as we have been thinking about many other things and costumes was not one of the most important.
We will talk about costumes in our next production meeting.
As we are getting closer to filming our title sequence we will need to be fully aware of everything needed for this.

This is the kind of thing we would like our character to wear. Even if it is just a white jacket with his arms tied or something similar.

Prop list

Here is a list of our props that we have decided to use:

• A knife
• A small rope
• A lighter
• Childs pens
• A3 sheet of paper

Used to place on the second charactors table.

• Table and chair
• Stall
• Stait jacket/white clothing
  
  

Any additional props will be added as we go along and added to our blog. We will further discuss our locations, props and costumes. We will more then likely add things to our production as we start filming

Location list

Here is a list of our locations that we have decided to use:

• White studio- located on the college site-so we can film the main shots


• An empty corridor with a room at the end-so we can film shot 12


• A room in the college that has a table and chair so we can film the flickering shots

These are our main locations, we may add a few locations as we go along. Any changes will be added to our blog.

Here is an example of the sort of locations we are going to use, we will take proper pictures of our locations when we begin to film.

Titles

We discussed what our titles would be in the sequence. Ben and Scott were looking at thriller opening sequences to get an idea of what titles are included in title sequences. We decided to take well known titles out of sequences to make ours more realistic and similar to actual film title sequences. These are some of the ideas we gathered:

A film by BSCK Productions Presents
Actors: Scott Lansdale and Niall Folbigg
The film name: A Broken Mind
Director of music Ben Tomlinson
Costumes designed by Rachel Chaplin
Edited by Ross Macintyre
Director of photography Karl Lambourne
Co Producers Ben Tomlinson
Produced by Cassie Barker
Directed by Norman Williams

We will discuss the names that will be written later on in our blog...We got our ideas from this title sequence from seven.

Production Meeting 3

We decided the order of shots today and how we are putting the sequence together.

Order of shots:

1. Long shot of male sitting on the stall but off centre a little. This is to be done in the white studio, All light so we can emphasis the male.
2. A close up of the males feet to emphasis that they are tied up, to make the spectator wonder why he is sitting there. You hear sounds from the male but cant quite recognize what he is saying.
3. A fast dissolve to another behind shot of a male sitting at a desk with many things scattered on it. You don't yet see any faces to keep the spectator guessing. A black screen with a duration of around 2 seconds appears to show the spectator the titles, like a subliminal message but with names on as titles.
4. Flickers to another shot, in which you see the males feet from the side, the shot will gradually circle the character until you get to the face. But this does not happen all at once as through out this, there is flickering images of other things, E.g. the male at the table.
5. A birds eye view of the male sitting at the table, gives the spectator a sense of what the male is doing, where you will see a lighter, a knife and a rope, and a large blank A3 sheet with some child's pens. This shot should only last about 2 seconds or less.
6. This shot is still gradually getting to the characters face. Hearing him singing a song. 
7. A side view of the character sitting at the table, should only last a few seconds. The spectator is kept guessing what the character is doing
8. This shot is nearly revealing the characters face.
   
9. Another shot of the character on the table, you now see him scribbling some sort of picture, keeps the spectator in suspense and wondering what is happening.
   
10. The spectator never sees the characters face but sees the top of his head, this keeps the spectator unaware of who the characters are. 
11. The character at the table is scribbling and concentrating hard on his picture. The spectator is now wondering what the the character is doing and why,
12. The last shot cuts to an empty blank hall way, you see in the distance a dark door, The door slowly opens to reveal the room and the man slowly walks  out. END OF SHOTS

Production Meeting 2

Today we analysed the sequence Switchblade Romance, after this we had a small chat about some more ideas we have.

We thought about where we were going to do our title sequence and we disscussed about either doing the sequence in a dark room with the lights off or a fully white room. The fully white room, is a studio on the college premisis which we will maybe have to ask permission to use and which we will visit our locations before we film to get a sense of how we will film and we could easily prepare a dark room... this would just mean turning the lights off when its dark and fixing a bulb or a lamp above the person sitting in the chair, this could keep the spectator in suspence
The other clips would be short duration so could be filmed almost anywhere... we had ideas of hands fiddling with a knife or something similar which could just be filmed on an ordinary table. All of our shots, apart from the first shot, will be short duration as this builds a bigger effect of suspense and tension. Many of our shots will be close ups, again apart from the first shot, as this creates the effect of including the spectator in the action and doesnt vary the imagination of the spectator as they have little information to start making interpretations, which helps to set the mood for the film.

We have not yet discussed what font type or style we are going to use as we feel this is irrelevant until we need to add it in, this is also the case for a soundtrack. Although we have discussed that the sounds should include scratching or screams of some sort etc, we have not fully discussed this but have some initial ideas.

We have decided we are not going to have any diagetic sound but all non-diagetic. It is easier to add a soundtrack in afterwards instead of trying to include dialogue etc.

In our next production meeting we will discuss our shot types and shot order, the roles of our group members and where exactly we are going to shoot our title sequence...

Analysis Of Switchblade Romance

Today we watched a sequence from the horror Switchblade Romance directed by Alexandre Aja. It was produced in 2005. We watched a sequence which has conventional thriller techniques such as Sound, Editing, Mise-En-Scene and Camerawork. We analysed this scene to try and get a better sense of what a thriller contains. We will then apply these techniques to our own thriller title sequence.

The Micro-elements were analysed by:
Editing: Ben
Mise-en-scene: Cassie
Sound: Scott
Camerawork: Karl

Editing: (Ben)
As the music slows in pace there is less cuts and an increase of the shot duration. As the pace and soundtrack increase you get a decreased shot duration. There is a variety of pace, sound and editing which makes the spectator feel tension, suspence and helps us to understand and take in her sense of panic. There is elements of parrallel editing, also known as spacial editing, when the shots go back and forward from the woman rushing around tidying up and trying to find a place to hide to the male walking up the stairs to find her. This also creates suspence and tension for the spectator as we are gripping the edge of our chair to find out what happens. It gives us the sense that the character is going to be found as she hides the most obvious place, which creates more suspence for the spectator.

Mise-en-scene: (Cassie)
The lighting is dark in the scene which creates a sense of fear, this is a well known convention of a thriller. There are loads of props to build up the scene, such as the blade that the male is carrying, this shows that he is the killer and he is the one looking for the woman and not the other way around, this is known as a traditional stereotype, as the male is the killer. Another prop is the telephone which plays a small part in the scene, the female trys to move the wardrobe to find a place to plug in the telephone, this links in with camerawork as it is very fast paced at this moment. The male is dressed in a boiler suit which makes him almost anonymous as it is everyday clothing, also to be compared to a convicts clothing. He is wearing a hat and big black leather boots which may suggest his masculinty and strength. It could also be used to help the spectator realise that he is after the woman as he is appeared to be more dominant in the frame. There is a close up of the males hand and you can clearly see he is wearing big rings, this could suggest that he has killed before and that these are the rings from the people he has murdered. The male has dirty hands which emphasises his impurity and carelessness. However, the females clothing is everyday clothing to prove that she could be any ordinary person, which suggests that this situation could happen to anyone The white shirt suggests her purity and innocence, which also looks like the sort of clothing a young person wears, showing she is maybe young.
The setting is in an old traditional home, which a small bathroom and small bedroom, which could emphasise the female being trapped with no escape as the rooms are small. These are the places that are used everyday and are familiar with, this is a key theme to a thriller. We see houses as a safe place to be in, you wouldnt assosiate a home with murder as it is your own personal space. This is all to keep the spectator in suspense.

Sound: (Scott)
The screams at the beginning of the scene connotate pain, anger or fear. The scuffling/dropping sounds imply a struggle The atmospheric music is very fast paces with occasional thudding noises, this could represent a heartbeat which builds tension and suspense. This has a big impact on the spectator. The spectator could even have a physical reaction to this, their heartbeat could increase as a result. This shows danger and expected action but the spectator doesnt know when to expect it which keeps the viewer interested and wondering. The spectator knows that something is going to happen/ shows off balance.
The tempo and volume increase to emphasise the danger growing, there is an uncomfortable element to the sounds that are heard and reflects what is happening in the scene.High pitched sounds are more awkward and uncomforting to listen to.
The breathing of both the male and female both reflect different things ont the spectator. The females breathing is very fast to emphasise her fear. Whereas, the males breathing is very slow and heavy which shows he is calm about his actions and suggests that he has killed before. We get the sense that the male knows what he is doing which makes the spectator uneasy. The subjective sounds from this scene, like the leather boots squelching and the floorboards creeking when he walks on them, also make the spectator feel uneasy.

Camerawork: (Karl)

The meaning is created through camerawork by the variety of shots, for example there are fast and slow pans to create effects of suspense and tension. Close up are used to help the reader to get involved with the action and put the reader into the scene. Close ups also limit the spectator to what they see to keep them guessing and wondering what is going to happen. Match on action is used to create suspense and help us to engage the two different stories as one. There are two stories happening at the same time, but the match on action helps us to separate them, but understand them as one. You never seem to see the males face, as if he has something to hide so they don't show his face. You see close ups of the props such as the blade to emphasis the danger of what is happening. It helps the spectator to join in with the action and understand the females fear. This is all to create suspense.

Thriller Conventions

Thriller Conventions we, as a group, need to keep in mind whislt filming and planning our title sequence. I decided to post this on our blog so we can easily refer back to this to make sure we stick to our aims, so we stay on track!

A crime at the core of the narrative (often murder, but not necessarily).
A complex narrative structure, with false paths, clues and resolutions.
A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved.
A protagonist who is systematically dis-empowered and drawn into a complex web of intrigue by the antagonist.
Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations.
Themes of identity.
Themes of mirroring.
Themes of voyeurism.
Protagonist with a ‘flaw’ which is exploited by the antagonist.
Titles often reflect an aspect of the pro/antagonist’s psychological state.
There is often a scene near the end of the film in which the protagonist is in peril.
Mise en scene which echoes/ mirrors the protagonist’s plight.

Analysis Of Seven

Our group analysed the opening title sequence of Seven to get a see how a title sequence is contructed to get an idea of how to put our title sequence together and what effect we need to create on the audience.

Camerawork = was analysed by Cassie
Editing = was analysed by Ben
Mise-en-scene = was analysed by Karl
Sound = was analysed by Scott

Camerawork: (Cassie)
The shot types do not really vary in this sequence as all the shots are close ups. There is not any long or medium shots involved to keep the viewer to a minimum on the action. This is to influence the viewer and keep them involved in the action and suspence. A metranome is used by musicians to keep in beat with the music, there is a close up of the males hand pushing the metranome which may suggest the seconds ticking away. Suggesting that the males life is wasteing away or time is ticking for some reason. It could also show the pace of the males heartbeat or pace of the film or how time is ticking away. It could even suggest that life is precious and you should use every second you have. There is many interpretations to the significance of the metranome. This keeps the viewer in suspence about what the male is doing and unaware of what is happening. Close ups through out the title sequence make the tension stronger as we cannot see any surroundings but just the specific shots. Also repetition of the shots create suspence. Oblique angles are added to confuse the viewer and make them think about what the film involves and what is to come. Moreover, zooms on the males face suggest he is the main character in the film and shows the viewer the facial expressions of the male. This may suggest the theme of gender is about to occur and be brought up.
Overall, in my opinion, this clip creates the mood of keeping the reader oblivious to what is happening in the sequence to create the tension and make suspence for the film to come.

Sound: (Scott)
At the beginning of the sequence, the male pushes the metranome to make a diagetic sound occur. This sound is the ticking of the metranome, the reader is fully aware of this sound. This has been included for a reason, maybe to suggest the male is a waste of time or time is ticking away. A metranome is used for a pianist to keep in the beat of time, maybe this sequence is suggesting the male is keeping in time, or could represent his heartbeat. Throughout the sequence, eerie sounds are used to keep the viewer interested and sat on the edge of their seat. This has an influence on the viewers as they are drawn into the clip. This is a non-diagetic sound as the clips are edited together, which makes the charactors not able to hear the sounds that are added afterwards. Slow paced music is used at the start of the flickering images to build up to the suspence, after the mood is set, the music begins to get faster in its pace to suggest that there is suspence and action in the film. It suggests that the film is fast paced.

Mise-en-scene: (Karl)

Props that are used in this scene represent a lot. It also sets the mood for the film as it creates the tension and puts the spectator in suspense and ready for what is going to happen in the film. The props include things like razor blades to represent danger or pain. There are bandages on the persons fingers show the spectator that the person has cut himself or done something that represents pain or suffering to maybe show he has done something wrong. Another interpretation of this could be that the person is trying to hide their finger prints from doing a crime or doing something wrong and does not what anyone to trace his prints etc. The persons dirty hands represent his impurity and shows that he has done something wrong. It shows the danger of the film and sets the spectator up for what is about to happen in the film. There are a range of books in the opening title sequence maybe to show the person is clever and has a lot of knowledge. It could also show he has information on people or to stalk people. this gives that person power and strength. The knowledge of the person shows the spectator they know what they are doing. There could be many different interpretations to what is happening in this title sequence.

Editing: (Ben)

At the beginning of the scene, there is long duration shots to set the scene and make the spectator wonder what is happening. This creates suspense and tension and sets the viewer up for the mood and setting of the film. After the first scene has been set, they shots turn into short duration with flickering images, which distorts the spectators views on what is happening. The transitions between the shots shows us that the shots have been deliberately edited together to create the effect of building the tension on the scene. Some of the shots are repeated which helps the spectator to try to understand and put the pieces together to try and figure out what is about to happen, although it is done to make the spectator unexpected of what the film is about, this helps to create more suspense.

Production Meeting 1

Hello,
This is our first production meeting and we would like to welcome you to our group, consisting of four members who are Karl Lambourne, Ben Tomlinson, Cassie Barker and Scott Lansdale.

This video, taken from youtube, is the opening sequence of seven and it is an inspiration to our ideas. The flashing images in this scene help us to grasp our idea for our very own title sequence.



Our ideas consist of a man (Scott) sitting in a chair rocking from back to front, like a crazy man. With flickering close up images of different happenings, this will build effects to keep the viewers interested and minimise the viewers to little action, which keeps the viewer unknown to what is happening.
The setting of our sequence is going to be held in a fully white room, to build effects of loneliness and to keep the viewer in suspense. The flickering images will be held in different settings to suggest the change in scene and atmosphere.
In this title sequence we will set the themes and moods of the film, which will be themes of loneliness, crisis and despair.
Our protagonist is going to appear as the main character being afraid of pain and death.
Our sound track will be produced later in the making, but will consist of screams, scratches and other off putting sounds and effects. Our props will also be discussed further in the process as well as makeup, lighting and camerawork.

These are only our initial ideas and changes will be made later on... :)

Welcome