This is a video to show the basic editing skills that I have learnt during this project.
GS5 Foundation Portfolio 2011
Thursday 7 April 2011
Evaluation
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Editing
Thursday 17 March 2011
Monday 28 February 2011
Filming
Tuesday 15 February 2011
Risk Assesment
Filming Schedule
Casting, Location, Costume and Props Planning
Age:10
Elena has had no professional experience in acting as she is only ten years old and is currentley not interested in taking acting as a carreer. She is suitable to play the role of the innocent ten year old in my thriller as we needed somone who is ten or looked ten and experience is not needed as there is no dialogue or specific acting. Her simple role is to act normal as she plays on the park and walks along the street in which we need to film her. For the costume I am going to ask her to wear her school uniform In which she is wearing in the picture above. Her school uniform consists of a blue shirt, navy blue skirt, navy blue tights and black shoes. The costume has been chosen because it will exadgerate her young age and her innosence/vulnerability. As Elena is only 10 years old I have had to require her parent's consent to allow her to be involved. I have received consent as shown below.
Nicholas Chawner
Age: 49
Nicholas has also had no proffesional acting experience. Again as said before this is not a problem as there is no dialogue and the acting does not require amazing acting skills. He is appropriate for the role of the antagonist/murderer because he is the right age that we are looking for, which is middle aged, maybe slightly older and he has a good solid build which exadgerates the innosence of the child that is being preyed upon in my thriller. As for the costume he will wear a black shirt and some denim jeans with trainers. All his clothing will look scruffy (Top button undone on his shirt, one side of the collar flicked up and one folded down ). This is to give him a rough/dangerous look.
Locations:
The first place I have chosen to shoot my thriller in is my garage. Inside my garage there is a work bench where I can have the actor standing with his props on the work bench whilst he plays the antagonist. I have chosen this location because it has a dirty, rough look which makes it seem very sinister and perfect for my thriller. It also has a light that is positioned just above the work bench and so this means that we will not need any additional lighting and thus means that we won,t have to waste time setting up the additional lighting. As you can see there is a lot of stuff on and around the bench but they will be removed ready for filming.
The second location will the park where the child will be shot playing. The park was chosen because it has plenty of bushes that we can shoot from and thus we can recreate the look of the serial killer stalking the child. It will also have other children playing there naturally and so we will have our extras without having to actually employ them. It will also make the diegetic sounds of the other children playing which will give to the effect of the vulnerability.
The third location we will be filming in will be the street in which I live on (Seaburn Road, Toton, Nottingham). I have chosen this location because I wanted a long shot of her walking down a street on her own to exaggerate her vulnerability.
Props:
There is only one prop in my thriller and that is the book of photos of past and present victims of the serial killer. I have chosen to use this prop as like in the thriller Se7en it gives hints into the plot without revealing anything major and thus still keeping the enigma which is one of the things which my target audience like about the film Se7en. At the moment the images are not in there but we will put the images in the book after filming Elena at the second and third location using the stills.
Planning Ideas for Thriller
This is a mindmap of my Ideas for my thriller. I started out by thinking of things that myself and the target audience liked from the subject film of seven. I liked the aspect of the book and how he had the planning of the murders inside it. I had a rough idea from the start that I wanted the plot to be based on a man that preys on the innosence of young children. This was where I came up with the idea of having the book with the images of past children he has prayed on and the present child in which he wishes to pray on. Originally I was going to have a wall of pictures of children but I realised in the time that I had I would not be able to gather all of the pictures for it to look effective in time. Also I planned to have a slow nursery rhyme made with minor chords for the soundtrack. However, I decided that although the nursery rhyme would fit with the theme of young children it would not fit with the genre of the thriller. Therefore I have chosen to make a soundtrack inspired by that of the soundtrack made for the thriller, Vertigo. It will also contain a heavy base line in it to build the tension within the audience as that is one of the things listed in the questionnaire that I did earlier that the audience liked about the thrillers. I decided that there would be an image of a girl that the antagonist was planning on murdering and thus this is what the film would be about. The shot would zoom in on the image and would then cut to a clip of the girl. There could be two clips of the girl in the opening scene; one of her on a swing in the park and one of her skipping down the street laughing. These would be filmed in colour to show that she is good. The antagonist will be filmed in black and white to show his negativity. In between all of these shots there will be a black screen where the titles will be shown. A flickering effect will be added to the titles to add to the genre of thriller. I planned that there would be a shot of the girl on a matress and tied up. However, I decided that I could not find a location for this and thus I decided that it would not be included in my thriller. Also at the end of the opening scene there will be a gigle from a laughing child. Although it is not on the mindmap, I have decided that the name of the thriller will be called The Unfortunate Souls because sometimes when somone refferes to a child they say "she's a wonderful little soul". I like the idea of the innosence that the refference of souls give also they would be unfortunate because obviously they've been killed as you've seen in the book.
Sunday 13 February 2011
Target Audience Research
Tuesday 8 February 2011
Conventions Continued
- In all the opening scenes that I have seen they all had an enigma. An enigma is when there is a mystery in the opening titles, which keeps the audience guessing. This is there to initiate the story line.
- Most of the opening scenes are also made up of close ups of people, objects or places to do with the plot line. They use close ups so that you can't see the whole object creating the enigma.
- This brings me to my last convention. In nearly all the opening scenes we are either introduced to the main character or location of the film. This is to set the scene for the beginning of the film.
Conventions of a Thriller
When I analysed the openings of the four thrillers I found that there were certain conventions that all of them had and that I will attempt to put in my own thriller opening.
- The first thing I found was that the sound on the opening titles of the thrillers mainly consisted of non diegetic sounds. It was used to build tension and sometimes to hint indirectly hint at the plot.
- Due to the fact that they are the opening titles they have titles over the top of the visuals to advertise who has made the film and who is in it to advertise them to the audience as if the actors are stars or if the director is extremely famous some people might just want to watch it for that reason.
Monday 7 February 2011
Thriller Research Continued
- The theme tune consists of a fast paced sound made by string instruments. This builds tension and thus following the genre of thriller.
- The theme tune is composed mainly of minor chords giving it a sinister tone and thus allowing the audience to know that the film is of a thriller genre.
- This piece of music becomes the theme tune throughout and builds tension because the audience know that when this piece of music is played they know something bad is going to happen.
- The music ends on a long high note signaling the beginning of the film.
- There is no camerawork in the opening credits as in the time that this film was made they did not have the technology to merge footage with visual and sound effects. This then means that the audience's attention is focussed on the people in the film and who made the film. They also focus the audience's attention on the music, giving them a taste of the genre.
- Again due to the lack of technology everything is in black and white. However, this works to their advantage as it makes everything seem more sinister thus helping to tell the genre of the film.
- A reverse block is used to show the opening credits to really attract the audiences attention to who's in the film and who made it because these facts alone could make the audience want to watch the film. [1]
- Alfred Hitchcock has used special effects in the transition of the credits as they change from one thing to another. This is to make the opening credits seem more interesting to the viewer so that the attraction is not lost. [2]
[1]
Sunday 6 February 2011
Thriller Research Continued
- The opening scene starts with the sound of thunder. This is an example of pathetic fallacy where human feelings are attributed to the weather. In this film the thunder creates a feeling of tension.
- It then starts with the soundtrack as the opening credits are played. It consists of heavy base, fast strings and the sounds of brass instruments in the background. All these instruments put together using mainly minor chords. This gives the feelings of fear and tension which then tells the audience straight away the genre of the film which is thriller.
- The soundtrack builds to a crescendo as the main title of the film is shown. This is to express the importance of the film title to the audience.
- After this in the soundtrack there is a constant ticking sound. Along with the fast paced music it gives an impression of a time limit that is quickly running out. This could be a taste of the plot within the film.
- Throughout the opening credits of this film there is echos of sirens and traffic sounds. This gives the audience a hint of the setting and plot. The sirens also hint at a crime and therefore giving the genre of a crime, thriller.
- The clip fades in at the start. This is to signal the beginning of the film.
- The straight cut is used throughout the clip this is to give a quick and snappy representation of all the main people involved with making the film e.g. the star actors. This is to attract people in with the big names in as little time as possible.
- Most of the camerawork consists of long shots to show the setting of the city and also to show the credit in front which they have placed there in the editing stage of production. These are used to give establishing shots to give the audience an idea of where it is set and who will be in it and who made it.
- Also a lot of the camerawork consists of panning and zooms to give more of the setting then the long shot could. It also makes the credits more interesting to watch.
- The soundtrack in this film has an electric sound with heavy base in it. The electric style gives screeches within the music which then gives a very sinister feel to it. The heavy base has been added to create tension. This sticks to the genre, that due to these techniques the audience knows that the film is a thriller.
- The music heightens when you see a shot of a picture of a boy being crossed out in a book. This adds to the shock effect to the revealing of what looks to be a murder plan.
- The camera work mainly consists of close ups of someone's hands doing thing. This is to hint at and show the importance of these things in the story line.
- At a several points in the opening credits you see close ups of a book that appears to have things in it about people and selections of there books in there. The close up is to highlight the importance of the book in the plot-line.
- The editing mainly consists of straight cuts to the credits and time lapses between the making of what seems to be a book about planning murder.
- The time lapses show the making of the book and thus hints towards the plot-line.
- The straight cuts to the black screens with the credits on singles out the production companies, the director and the star actors and actresses in the film to attract the audiences attention.
- Within the straight cuts to the black screen the title of the film flickers in the background. This gives an old fashioned reel affect which then gives a ghost like sinister effect to the title which then gives the film an overall thriller genre.
Saturday 5 February 2011
Thriller Research
- The soundtrack of the opening mainly consists of minor chords. This is to give a sinister tone to the opening credits and allows the audience to connect to the theme as a thriller.
- The soundtrack is written in a 6/8 time which gives a fast waltzing sound to it. Due to the waltzing sound it gives an impression of dizziness which is one of the symptoms of vertigo and so linking it to the title of the film.
- The soundtrack builds to a crescendo when the Director's name and the name of the film appears to signify the importance of the names.
- Towards the end of the opening credits the soundtrack changes to the sound of fast strings to build tension as the story begins.
- At the beginning of the opening credits there is a close up of a girl's eyes. In her eyes she is showing fear. This gives the impression of the genre and it makes the audience feel scared.
- Towards the end of the opening credits there is another close up shot of the girl's eye. This time it has the main symbol of the film. This gives an idea of importance towards the logo and gives the audience a taste of what's to come and makes them want to continue watching it.
- The editing mostly consists of dissolves from one image to another. The images are spinning around. This could suggest dizziness and so once again linking to the title of vertigo.
Thursday 3 February 2011
Thursday 27 January 2011
Editing Continued
Tuesday 25 January 2011
Editing
So far we have chosen specific footage we want to use edited that and then added a heart beat sound effect to add to the overall mood of the film. We will finish the editing as a group in our own time.
Monday 24 January 2011
Filming
The filming mostly went smoothly. There are a couple of outtakes but they will be edited out in the edditing stage which will happen in our next lesson.
Tuesday 18 January 2011
Starting the Preliminary Task
Unfortunately there are only 2 of us present to story board our idea due to exams. This means that the ideas we have come up with might be changed if the other two people who are missing do not like the idea.