Friday, 13 March 2015
Thursday, 5 February 2015
Q7
I feel that I have developed greatly as a film maker, I took
media at GCSE and so I knew some of the key terminology however I never had to
make or produce a film which meant that I had no experience of this before my
preliminary task.
We also thought more about lighting and we made sure that we used lighting to create mood and tension, we did research on other similar thriller to see what good effects they use and how they use conventions. We decided that we need to think further into costume as in our preliminary you could see our clothes under our costumes so we had to make sure that the costumes were covering our full body not just our top half partly.

We developed in the range of shots that we used; we also
learnt how to use the tripod more effectively and how to make sure that all of
our shots were steady. Having a wider range of shots meant that we had more
variation and we didn’t have to worry about only using a basic range of shots
and the production being boring.

When we were trying to come up with ideas for our final
production we came up with all the ideas together as a group, we had to decide
first on our sub-genre and we all watch and enjoy action thrillers so we
decided that was the best genre for us to do. Once we had come up with the basic
idea for our thriller we had to decide on a name that linked to our idea. Once again
we decided this on a group; after we had all submitted various ideas we decided
that the best option was to call it ‘on the run’ we chose this as for our plot
it is a man that is running away and hiding from a group of soldiers/ the army/
the police or a swat team. It also gives the audience a sense of mystery as you
don’t learn any of the characters names or who the men work for and what the man
on the run has done to be in this position. This leaves the audience with
questions on their minds which makes them more likely to want to watch the full
film. I feel that from the use of more advanced skills and from thinking deeper
into the planning of the production meant we could increase the length and
increase the audience appeal. Our preliminary task was 1 minute and 24 seconds,
whereas our final production was 1 minute and 51 seconds. The mise-en-scene of
our final production is also greatly improved as the lighting in our
preliminary was just whatever was in the place we recorded; we didn’t alter any
of the lighting to add mood and effect, other than in our final scene. In our final production we used the lighting
much more effectively to create mood and grab the audience’s attention. The props
that we used were also greatly improved; in our preliminary we used small
plastic guns whereas in our final production we used replica air-soft guns so that
they look like real guns which made it look more professional and more
realistic.


I also came across new technology when editing my preliminary
task, I had never used any editing software so at first it was hard to use
iMovie, however once we had started using it and we had to learn quickly about
all of the functions and features of iMovie. Once we had used it a few times
and we had got used to it, it was much easier for us to use. I felt that our
preliminary was very successful as it was a practice run at using the macs and
the cameras; it gave us a chance to learn from our mistakes and practice using
more advanced camera shots and then we could see if they worked and if we
should use them again. However if I could go back and redo my preliminary I
would try to make it flow more and use different cuts, as we only used straight
cuts and simple camera angles so it got quite boring. I would say that our
final production is a better quality than our preliminary as we were more
prepared and we were more adventure’s, we tried to use more cuts and we added
effects in between shots so that it looked more like a thriller and not just
jump cuts to the next scene.
We also thought more about lighting and we made sure that we used lighting to create mood and tension, we did research on other similar thriller to see what good effects they use and how they use conventions. We decided that we need to think further into costume as in our preliminary you could see our clothes under our costumes so we had to make sure that the costumes were covering our full body not just our top half partly.

We thought much more deeply into the setting and the
background of the shots, in our preliminary task you could see the actors cloths
as well as the costumes, we had to change this so that you could only see the
costumes. In our preliminary our shots weren’t framed very well as you could
clearly see the setting behind the character did not make sense and it did not
follow the plot of the production. When
we made our final production we had to make sure that we framed our shots
correctly and we had to make sure that you couldn’t see anything that we didn’t
want the audience to see or that didn’t relate to the plot of our production.
In our preliminary we didn’t stick to the 180 degree rule,
this is where the camera doesn’t cross from one side of the room to the other,
this is used so that the audience won’t know what is going on as if a character
is holding something in his left hand, when the 180 degree rule is broke the
character will be holding that object in his right hand which then confuses the
audience as they don’t understand why it has swapped sides. We managed to stick
to the 180 degree rule in our final production but not in our prelim. If I could
improve our prelim I would make our shots flow better so that it looked more professional
and I would make sure that we followed the 180 degree rule as then the plot
would have made more sense. The match on action is important as you have to
make sure that the props and costume fit into the genre or else the story and
plot will make no sense and the audience will be confused. As our genre is
action we had to make sure that we used props that related to this, therefore
we decided to use guns as that appealed to our audience and it made sure that
it contained some action.


Overall I feel that our thriller
was very effective as it is a very unique idea that grabs the audience’s
attention and it makes them curious about the rest of the film; it makes them
ask questions about the characters that you don’t find out in the opening
titles. We used a range of camera angles that gave the titles variety and we
used different cuts so that the audience didn’t have to see the same thing
multiple times. The only improvement I would say is that we should have started
filming earlier in the day as it was very dark when we started filming so we
had to rely on the lights at the location and any lights we had brought
ourselves. The reason we couldn’t film earlier is because the location that we
was using didn’t close to the public until 4:30pm which meant that we couldn’t start
filming till about 5:00pm which meant that it was already dark when we wanted to
start filming. The main strengths of our thriller is that because of the plot
being a man running away and hiding from a group, we didn’t want the audience to
see too much about him or loads of his face/body so using lots of fast paced
straight cuts meant that the thriller flowed easily and it ran through nicely
compared to our preliminary. We created the music ourselves and I would say
that this was one of our strengths, it helped to create the mood and the pace
of the music fit in with the pace of the action in the plot.


Wednesday, 4 February 2015
Q2
Sam
played the antagonist or the victim/hero. We looked at other heroes and victims
to see what they looked like and how they dressed, we looked at taken first as
we knew that it is a popular thriller which uses lots of conventions of
traditional thrillers so we thought that it would be a good place to start. We then
looked at the Bourne identity but we couldn’t find any characters that were
similar to our character so we decided to use the one we had found in taken. We
chose to use normal clothing, this fit in with the narrative as he was supposed
to blend in with civilians as he was on the run from the men so if he was
dressed in army clothes or like a soldier then he would be easily recognised
and they would easily be able to find him. Having him dress in normal clothing
makes him seem not important and not part of the main plot. We chose to have
him sitting down away from the men or running, this symbolises weakness, and
being a coward and trying to avoid all conflict by hiding inside of the cabin
in the construction yard until the men find him where he then runs away to
another hiding place.
I
compared this character to “Kim” from Taken; both characters play an important
yet lesser role in the films the story couldn’t exist without them however they
aren’t constantly in the film and aren’t constantly referred to. Although one
character is male and one is female, they are similar in other ways than
appearance. They are however different ages, one is a 15 year old teenager and the
other is a young adult aged between 20 and 25, they are both wearing similar
clothing, they are wearing casual clothing that you would wear when you go out
with family or when you just go out with friends. The man from our thriller is
only known as the wanted man in the opening he plays an important role as he is
wanted by the other men for a reason that is currently unknown to the audience,
however you don’t know from the opening if he is the only man they are after or
if he is even the main character. In taken Kim is the daughter of Liam Neeson,
she plays an important role as she gets kidnapped so the film follows Liam Neeson
as he tries to find her and get her back. It follows where Liam Neeson goes
through Paris so it follows both characters but mainly it covers Liam Neeson so
she only plays a side role. Both characters display similar characteristics and
they both act similarly. It seems that neither are trained or want to try to
fight off the men that are coming after them. Both characters try to hide from
the attackers that are after them and both are alone and look worried like they
can’t look for or ask for help in the fear that the men might find and kill or
kidnap them. The shot is fairly similar as they are both mid-shots that show
most of the characters appearance however they only show the top half of the
character so you can’t see all of the characters clothes. Both are filmed
inside and inside a house, the angle of the camera shows weakness in the
character. Both are in well light rooms however from the shot you can’t see
what time of day it is outside.
The character don’t display similar facial or physical features yet the rest of their features are similar and they both have very worried looks on their faces which could mean that they both recognise the danger that they are in which would mean that they are intelligent characters. During taken the girl is in a house with her friend and then she sees her friend get grabbed by some unknown men, this triggers her to ring her father and hide under the bed. This is similar to our thriller as the character is calm and fine until he hears and sees the men coming towards his hiding spot which causes him to leave his things and run out of the place and find a new hiding spot. The narrative of the films is similar because they are both doing the same action however one character is older and one character can ring for help which the older man can’t do that.

Our thriller film is also similar to a film called man on
fire as in this film an ex assassin is contracted to protect a family that
could be in danger, the main character builds an unusual bond with the family’s
daughter, she then gets kidnapped and has to go find her on his own. This is
similar to our thriller as all we learn from the opening titles is that there
is a man that is on the run from a group of soldiers and we don’t know what his
motive is or what he has done wrong, however each different audience member
will have a different view and representation of how they picture the rest of
the film. The main characters in both films are similar as both have a motive
that is why they are doing their mission, however a difference is that the
character from man on fire is trying to get something back that means a lot to
him whereas we don’t know the motive of the main character from our thriller. They
are different in their personalities seem different as one of them runs away
from danger and the other one seems to be attracted to danger and action because
of what he wants back. One of the men is being hunted by soldiers of an unknown
organisation whereas the other seems to be hunting men from an unknown organisation.

Glen played the role of the main attacker/villain/protagonist. He wore dark clothing so that he could blend in with the time of day and it would be hard for the people he was going after to see him. We decided on what he would wear and how he would wear it by looking at other villains from thrillers to see what they wear normally the first film that we looked at was lone survivor and we looked at the soldiers from that to see the typical clothing that soldiers have to wear. We then looked at the film Bourne identity as it contained soldiers and it was in a city setting so we could do a comparison to our thriller. We compared this shot and character to Mark Wahlberg in lone survivor. The characters are different in the sense that mark Wahlberg plays the hero and from the opening it seems that the other character is the villain. However both characters wear similar clothing and they both wear body armour, we got the idea to use body armour as many soldiers in films wear body armour to give a more realistic effect. One character wears a hat to cover more of his face and one character wears a balaclava to hide all of his face and so nobody knows who he is. Despite one character being a hero and one being a villain, they do display similar features, both shots are done in the outside. One shot is at night and the shot and character is only visible because of the lamppost or lights that are above his head.

The difference in lighting between the two characters symbolises the different kinds of tasks that they have to do and what kind of character they are. Both of the camera shots used are close ups of the characters faces, they are used to show facial detail and to show the audience what they look like. Both of the characters use the same prop, a gun, it symbolises that it is an action thriller and that they are soldiers.
We also found that our character could be compared to the
villain in Bourne identity as we wanted to compare it to someone of a similar motive
and of a similar mind-set; this gave us a better idea of what they wear and how
they act in comparison to heroes. In the
Bourne identity the antagonist is trying to recover his identity as he suffered
a head trauma which caused him to have brain damage and memory loss, he is also
trying to remember why this villain is after him and trying to kill him as he doesn’t remember why he is being
attacked. The characters are similar as they both have a stern face and they are
concentrated on looking directly at something.

The character don’t display similar facial or physical features yet the rest of their features are similar and they both have very worried looks on their faces which could mean that they both recognise the danger that they are in which would mean that they are intelligent characters. During taken the girl is in a house with her friend and then she sees her friend get grabbed by some unknown men, this triggers her to ring her father and hide under the bed. This is similar to our thriller as the character is calm and fine until he hears and sees the men coming towards his hiding spot which causes him to leave his things and run out of the place and find a new hiding spot. The narrative of the films is similar because they are both doing the same action however one character is older and one character can ring for help which the older man can’t do that.



Glen played the role of the main attacker/villain/protagonist. He wore dark clothing so that he could blend in with the time of day and it would be hard for the people he was going after to see him. We decided on what he would wear and how he would wear it by looking at other villains from thrillers to see what they wear normally the first film that we looked at was lone survivor and we looked at the soldiers from that to see the typical clothing that soldiers have to wear. We then looked at the film Bourne identity as it contained soldiers and it was in a city setting so we could do a comparison to our thriller. We compared this shot and character to Mark Wahlberg in lone survivor. The characters are different in the sense that mark Wahlberg plays the hero and from the opening it seems that the other character is the villain. However both characters wear similar clothing and they both wear body armour, we got the idea to use body armour as many soldiers in films wear body armour to give a more realistic effect. One character wears a hat to cover more of his face and one character wears a balaclava to hide all of his face and so nobody knows who he is. Despite one character being a hero and one being a villain, they do display similar features, both shots are done in the outside. One shot is at night and the shot and character is only visible because of the lamppost or lights that are above his head.

The difference in lighting between the two characters symbolises the different kinds of tasks that they have to do and what kind of character they are. Both of the camera shots used are close ups of the characters faces, they are used to show facial detail and to show the audience what they look like. Both of the characters use the same prop, a gun, it symbolises that it is an action thriller and that they are soldiers.

Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Monday, 2 February 2015
Q4
Before we began to create our
thriller opening titles we had to think of an idea for it, to do this we had to
get our target audience which is teenagers aged 15+ up in till 30 years old and
we had to work out the kinds of things that they want to see in thrillers and
what appeals to them, we had to work out what subgenres they most like whilst
watching thriller films. We found out who our target audience were by questionnaire
and by a vox pop, we asked people of different ages and of different occupation
so that we had a wide range of different answers, we asked people from the age
range of our production on wards so that we could get a more specific audience and
we had to make sure that we were targeting it at the right age groups by making
sure we had some of the things that they asked for in it. To find out our main
target audience we sent out a questionnaire to our friends and families, aged
between 15-40, we wanted to know what kind of films they watch and what conventions
they like to see in a film. I identified that my target audience for my thriller
opening titles is people aged 15+ mainly males. To decide what our typical
audience members like to see we did a Vox Pop, this is an interview to where we
asked a few different people a few questions about thrillers and what they like
to see in them. The questions that we asked them were “what is your favourite
type of thriller?” “Why do you like thrillers?” and “what is your favourite
thriller film?” we chose to ask these three questions as that then gave us an
insight into what our audience like and enjoy watching, from this research I found out that my
audience like action and crime thrillers more than any other genre of thriller.
That meant that I knew my genre of film but I still had to decide on what I
would include in the opening titles. I found out that my audience like
thrillers because of the excitement, suspense, mystery and because it gets them
on the edge of their seat. This tells me that when I make a thriller opening I
need to make it intense and exciting and I need to add some mystery to it. I
learnt that it is mostly men that enjoy the action thrillers however some women
do also enjoy watching them. The age we chose was 15+ we felt that would be
appropriate for our thriller opening as it has action in it and the use of guns
and violence would not be appropriate or suitable for younger children, also
having a wide audience helps us as it has conventions of most common action
thrillers so it doesn’t have a small refined audience, it has a larger mass audience.

The average person that would watch
our thriller opening titles would be very interested in movies and gaming, they
would have all the latest technology and they would want to makes sure they
bought the latest games and went and watched all the latest films as soon as
they could. They would mostly be into one genre of media, they would enjoy
action and that is why our thriller would appeal to them as it is a thriller
action. The BBFC age rating that our
thriller would have is 15+ BBFC age rating, we felt this would be appropriate
as it has guns and violence in it so younger teenagers and children would not
understand the violence and it would not be appropriate for them to see that
level of violence. The plot also contains mystery and only older teenagers and
adults would understand the plot and the language used in it. This largely
influenced our choice of target audience as the themes and plot would not suit
younger people. As our age rating was 15+ we couldn’t have had our target
audience as younger than that so we thought that 15+ would be an effective age
for the audience as we knew that this kind of film would appeal to a large
audience so we left the target audience age very open to accommodate for all
people that would want to watch it.
Our typical audience member would look like this, they would be a casual gamer and enjoy lots of films, they would be our target audience as they would watch more thriller films than adults, most teenagers enjoy fiction and watching a fiction film can be an escape from reality for them. Teenagers enjoy the thriller action genre as lots of them play video games like call of duty which is a violent war game, this then makes them want to watch more violent films which is why we included guns into our thriller as that attracts young adults to watch the film. As for the socio-economic class and ethnicity it is not really targeted at anyone in particular, it doesn’t contain any racial themes that could offend people. The socio economic class that we have chosen is C1-E. As these are the most common groups within our age range and our target audience. However it doesn’t mean that is the only audience that will watch and enjoy it, that is just the most common audience.
Sunday, 1 February 2015
Q6
During
the task I have learnt how to do use lots of different editing techniques and I
have learnt how to use new things on the mac to try and make my production as
good as it can be. We learnt how to use Prezi to make our presentations more
professional and make them look better. We learnt how to use padlet and this
was an effective and organised way to present our research and our information
without making it look boring and not appealing to the audience. Before we
started filming we had to make sure that we scouted the location and we had to
check that the area we chose was appropriate to film in, had to check it was
big enough and that it was safe enough and there were no safety risks. We had
to make sure that the area was suitable for the plot and that we could get
enough shots of the area.










We learnt that you can’t break the 180 degrees rule, this
just means that you can’t film on two sides of a room as it would make it so
that things that were on the left side were then on the other side so that it
doesn’t confuse the audience and they don’t lose track of what is happening.
You have to make sure that you frame a shot correctly and that you make sure
the main thing you want the audience to see first is in the middle centre, also
you have to make sure that you don’t have anything in the shot that you don’t
want the audience to see. We learnt that we needed to include lots of different
shots so that it has variation and not just bring being the same shot type with
different background. We learnt how to use iMovie to make our production more professional,
we learnt how to put clips together and how to make them longer/shorter. We
learnt how to use transitions between clips, how to add music and how to put
text over the top of clips. We had to use all of these to make sure that our
production was better and that it looked more
like a real thriller. We learnt how to add effects to clips and how to
make them lighter or darker. We used lots of close ups, mid-shots, high angle
and low angle shots. Close ups allowed us to show the characters faces without
showing much information about the location that the characters are in.
mid-shots let us show the character doing something and it lets us show the
location that they are in which reveals to the audience what the character is
like and how they act. We used lots of fade to white transitions but we only
added them for half a second, this made it clear that it was switching between
locations and the different characters, this gives the impact that it could be
a flashback that one of the characters is having.
We learnt that you have to use the tripod to keep the camera
steady and still so the shot doesn’t look like someone is holding it and it
doesn’t look like an unprofessional shot, the only time that the camera shot
should be moving is if you are doing a pan or If you are having a shot that is
meant to be a security camera as then you have to have the camera moving left
right/ up or down. You have to make sure that the lighting is correct and that
you can see what is happening in the scene without it being too light. Thriller
films often set the mood by the lighting, having a shot with lots of light set
up the mood to be calm and secure which then gives the audience a false sense
of security. Before we went to film we had to make sure that the weather was
ok, not raining at the time, unless we wanted that for the mood. Not really
windy so that the camera can’t stay still and so it is easier to film. We
learnt when we had to use certain shot types and what the most effective shot
types are for each scene. Close ups and mid shots are used to show facial
features and location. In terms of framing you have to apply the golden mean,
you have to make sure that all of the main parts of action are in the middle of
the shot so that the audience’s attention is on the main parts first instead of
something they don’t want them to see. When we wanted the audience to pay
attention to one thing but still have something else in the shot we made sure
that the main action was in the centre of the screen. We had to think about
framing a shot, we had to make sure that we didn’t include anything in the
scene that we didn’t want the audience to see.
The first technique that we used is called split clip, this
is where you take one clip and you split it into two clips which makes it shorter,
also it allows you to add another clip in the middle of it or and effect or
image. This allows for a clip to be lengthened or shortened without losing any of the footage.
The
next technique that we used was changing the exposure, contrast, brightness and
saturation. All of these effect the lighting and they can change the mood by
adjusting the brightness, they also make it so that it is harder to see the
shot as they can make the shot more pixelated so they give the effect that it
is not real or that it the audience are looking through a security camera. They
can also affect the colouring of the shot as they can add a red tint which symbolises
death, blood and evil.
The next thing that we had to do was add music into the
production which meant that we had to first add pick the music that we wanted
to use, we then had to upload it onto iTunes on the mac and then add it into
our production where ever we wanted it. We used the music to create a background sound
so that it wasn’t just pictures moving, music is used to create suspense and
can change the mood.
Next we had to add effects to the production, the only effect
that we used was a fade to white. We added lots of these in between the shots
to give the effect that it was a flash of light as we only made the clips 0.1
second long as then it gives it the effect that it is a flashback which is the
effect that we are going for.
Next we had to add in the text and the titles, we did this by
adding them into the clip via a picture in picture, this meant that we could
add our titles over the top of the images and clips that were already there, the
picture in picture effect means that the titles look natural and they don’t cover
up all of the action in each shot.
When
we had to pitch our idea we created our pitch on prezi, this gave it a whole
new effect and it allowed for more audience interaction as they could clearly
see all of the information we were displaying without it just being a PowerPoint
presentation. This also gave us an idea of how to use technologies that we can
use again. We also used padlet to say what each member of the group’s role is,
this allowed us to present all of the information in an exciting way. We got
feedback from our audience on Facebook and on YouTube, we posted them on these social
networking so that we could get feedback from our audience on their so that we
can see and respond to them directly, we also did a vox pop to find out what
our audience like in a thriller. We also did a questionnaire to see what our audience
wanted us to include in the thriller and how we should lay it out. We then took
this advice into our planning and we looked to include some of the ideas that
the audience gave us and some of our own ideas.
Q5
Our audience told us that they wanted action and mystery in
the thriller, they wanted to be engaged in the action whilst still not knowing
everything that is happening and having plot twists that kept them interested.
So we had to make sure that we added them into our opening along with some
other themes and ideas we thought of ourselves and that we thought our audience
would like. From our questionnaires, which we did in the form of a vox pop, we
learnt that our audience wanted action and mystery whilst not being too cliché.
In this shot it shows a silhouette of two of the soldiers
that are searching for the man, the shot is from inside of the hut looking
through a window, you can see the lights and the outline of some of the guns,
this shot shows that the men are still searching and they are looking
everywhere for the wanted man. The audience wanted us to add mystery into the
plot of the film so we did that in this shot. We framed the shot by making sure
that light was in the centre and not too high and not too low. Because the
light was in the middle of the shot it is the first thing that you see when the
shot comes on. It is a mid-shot of the doors on the hut and it shows the lights
on the guns. This shows the audience that the men are well trained as they have
good equipment and they search everything so they are well trained, however the
question of what the wanted man has done will still be in the audiences minds.
The lighting is dark apart from the big floodlight coming through on the left
of the shot and the flash light in the middle of the shot. The lighting
suggests that someone is searching the building without going into it, they are
shining the light into it to see if they can see the man inside of the
building. The location of this shot is by a shed, the camera is in the shed and
the men are on the outside.
This shot is a close up of a gun. Guns are a common convention of the action and thriller genre, they are often used and they symbolise action and violence which is common for thrillers and action films. For the framing of this shot we decide that the best place for the gun was in the very middle of the shot so that it is the first thing that you see and it’s the thing that the audience focus on the most. The audience wanted us to make sure we had some common conventions of the genre to make sure that it was recognisable and that they had definite something to look at and enjoy. They also told us to add our own things into it and make it original. So we have used a mix of common items and non-common items. We made sure that you can only see the gun in this shot because it shows that that is the focus of the shot and it makes you think about what the man who has the gun will do next or to the other characters that you can see in the previous shots. This shot is very light as this shot doesn’t contain any characters it is just a close up of the gun, however it is very light as it is focused on the gun and it shows that this gun is the hero’s as it is inside in the light whereas the villains are outside and are in the dark. The lighting symbolises the different sides of the characters and the roles that they play in the story.
This shot is similar to the previous shot however this time the gun is being loaded by the wanted man, this symbolises that he will soon have to use it. This shows the audience that a gun fight will happen in the film somewhere, it symbolises that the man is ready to fight the men that are coming to get him. It still keeps the question in the audience minds wondering what the man has done, however it helps them to have a guess as they know it must be something bad as he has to fight them off, it makes them think that he has probably killed someone. For the framing of the shot we decided to frame it in the centre of the shot again because that is the first thing that the audience see so then they get to see what we wanted them to which keeps them engaged in the action. Our audience asked us to include some action into it as it keeps them on the edge of their seats wanting to know what will happen next. We only made sure that you could see the gun and the bullets so that you know exactly what is going on and you only have to focus on one thing. We also included an element of mystery into the opening so that the audience are more likely to want to watch it as that is what they asked for. This is another close up of the gun and again it shows that the gun is in possession of a hero as it is light throughout the shot and the gun is lit up which shows it is the main focus of the shot. Once again the lighting symbolises what side the character that has the gun is on.
This shot is a close up of one of the soldiers running through a puddle, it shows that the weather has been raining and this symbolises that having bad weather means that a bad event will occur, this gives the audience the impression that the man, or one of the soldiers will die. The lighting can affect the mood of the scene and in this shot the lighting is dark to show the splash of the foot in the puddle and to show the flood lights shining into the puddle. As the man runs through the puddle quickly you can see that his is in a hurry to get somewhere which could mean that he has spotted his target and is chasing him. The soldier is wearing boots which is the conventional footwear for soldiers as it shows that they are ready for any situation and they are ready for any ground and weather conditions. In the questionnaires the audience wanted us to add different angle shots and unusual shots, so we decided to do a side angle close up of the soldier running through the puddle as that isn’t a standard shot in thriller films. You can’t see the location from this shot however the audience are to presume that it is the same location as you can see a little bit of the ground around the puddle which suggests that the location has not changed.
A common convention of the action and thriller genre is cars
which are used for the soldiers to get to the location and find the man, masks
which hide the identity of the soldiers and they make it so that the man and
the audience don’t know who they are and guns which are used by the soldiers to
attack and kill the wanted man. The shot shows the group of hired men coming
into the area where the wanted man is. The all arrive wearing similar clothing
which is what the audience wanted, it gives them the impression that the men
are professional and know what they are doing. Also the car has blacked out
windows which hides the people in the car giving the audience something to
think about as they don’t know how many people are inside the car going after
the wanted man. Having the two people on the side of the car also tells the
audience that the car is full so it gives them a small idea about how many
people are coming after the man. Having a lot of people after the man makes the
audience wonder what he has done and how bad his crime is. The camera angle we
chose was a low angle shot, this means that you can see the entire car and it
makes the men on the side of the car look more powerful and it makes them look
like they are in control of the situation. Having the men look more powerful
gives the impression that there are more of them and that the wanted man is
outnumbered, this is common in the action thriller genre and it is what our
audience wanted us to include. The ligting is fairly
lit as there is a light directly on the front of the car so it gives the effect
that the car is bright and like a becaon for the men. The men on the side and
in the car however are dark as they arent meant to be seen and it lets the
audience know that they are evil and villains. The setting shows that they are
in some kind of construction yard and it is quite protected as you can see a
gate in the background of this shot.
The soldier has a small gun and he is wearing dark clothing,
black coloured clothing symbolises evil and death. He looks like a professional
killer as of the way that he moves and with the hand gestures that he uses, it
makes the audience think that the soldiers know what they are doing and that
they can do their job well. The lighting focuses on the soldier and the objects
around him are dark compared to him. The location is by some bags or blocks of
concrete, this shows that the location of the man is a construction yard. This
is a common location of thrillers and gun fights as there are a lot of places
in the yard that can be used to hide behind and fight from. The clothes that he
is wearing symbolise a villain as is wearing dark colours which shows the evil
and darkness of the character and of his intentions. The lighting is dark but there is a light
shining on the man which shows that he is the subject of the shot and it makes
it easier for the audience to identify what he is wearing.
This shot is a close up of a gun. Guns are a common convention of the action and thriller genre, they are often used and they symbolise action and violence which is common for thrillers and action films. For the framing of this shot we decide that the best place for the gun was in the very middle of the shot so that it is the first thing that you see and it’s the thing that the audience focus on the most. The audience wanted us to make sure we had some common conventions of the genre to make sure that it was recognisable and that they had definite something to look at and enjoy. They also told us to add our own things into it and make it original. So we have used a mix of common items and non-common items. We made sure that you can only see the gun in this shot because it shows that that is the focus of the shot and it makes you think about what the man who has the gun will do next or to the other characters that you can see in the previous shots. This shot is very light as this shot doesn’t contain any characters it is just a close up of the gun, however it is very light as it is focused on the gun and it shows that this gun is the hero’s as it is inside in the light whereas the villains are outside and are in the dark. The lighting symbolises the different sides of the characters and the roles that they play in the story.
This shot is similar to the previous shot however this time the gun is being loaded by the wanted man, this symbolises that he will soon have to use it. This shows the audience that a gun fight will happen in the film somewhere, it symbolises that the man is ready to fight the men that are coming to get him. It still keeps the question in the audience minds wondering what the man has done, however it helps them to have a guess as they know it must be something bad as he has to fight them off, it makes them think that he has probably killed someone. For the framing of the shot we decided to frame it in the centre of the shot again because that is the first thing that the audience see so then they get to see what we wanted them to which keeps them engaged in the action. Our audience asked us to include some action into it as it keeps them on the edge of their seats wanting to know what will happen next. We only made sure that you could see the gun and the bullets so that you know exactly what is going on and you only have to focus on one thing. We also included an element of mystery into the opening so that the audience are more likely to want to watch it as that is what they asked for. This is another close up of the gun and again it shows that the gun is in possession of a hero as it is light throughout the shot and the gun is lit up which shows it is the main focus of the shot. Once again the lighting symbolises what side the character that has the gun is on.
This shot is a close up of one of the men that is coming
after the wanted man. He displays the common clothing and features of a bad guy
in action thriller films. The bad guys always seem to wear dark clothing and
masks to hide their appearance and to make sure that people don’t know who they
are. Our audience told us that they wanted to see villains that you don’t get
to see till the end of the film, we added this into four characters by hiding
the identity of the bad guys its adds the element of mystery that audience
asked for. We framed it so that the soldier was in the middle of the shot and
it is a close up so you can only see the front man and you can’t see the other
men coming from behind him. The lighting is quite dark however the main
lighting focus is around the character which gives the impression that the
light goes around him and he is the main villain. The lighting around the
character is very light and this shows that the location of the hero hiding
spot has been lit up by his era of good. The costume that the character wears
is a balaclava, a jumper and a vest, this is typical of a soldier and a villain
as he is prepared for battle but he is also hiding his identity. He is wearing
the clothing that symbolises he is a villain, he is wearing all dark clothing
and he is staring into the camera with an evil look in his eye. The setting is
in a construction yard, we picked this location as if a man was running away
from being chased he could go into a construction yard to hide easier. We took
the scene from the film Skyfall as our inspiration, in the opening scene of
this film James bond chases his target into a construction yard, and we chose
to have the wanted man hide in a construction yard so that it was similar to
Skyfall but no completely copying it.
This shot is a close up of one of the soldiers running through a puddle, it shows that the weather has been raining and this symbolises that having bad weather means that a bad event will occur, this gives the audience the impression that the man, or one of the soldiers will die. The lighting can affect the mood of the scene and in this shot the lighting is dark to show the splash of the foot in the puddle and to show the flood lights shining into the puddle. As the man runs through the puddle quickly you can see that his is in a hurry to get somewhere which could mean that he has spotted his target and is chasing him. The soldier is wearing boots which is the conventional footwear for soldiers as it shows that they are ready for any situation and they are ready for any ground and weather conditions. In the questionnaires the audience wanted us to add different angle shots and unusual shots, so we decided to do a side angle close up of the soldier running through the puddle as that isn’t a standard shot in thriller films. You can’t see the location from this shot however the audience are to presume that it is the same location as you can see a little bit of the ground around the puddle which suggests that the location has not changed.
Q3


Our logo is a just a plain camera however the unique feature
is that in the lens of the camera is the world along with the writing with says
Burton productions. The black of the camera is to contrast with the other
colours of the world, it gives a background to the rest of the colours. It
gives the audience something to look at as it doesn’t have too many colours in
it or too much going on, it is simple yet effective so that our audience will
remember it without it being too bold and in their faces.
A production company helps to make
a film, it helps with funding, scheduling, casting, scripting etc. it helps to
look after the making of the film from when it is just an initial idea to when
it is finished, they help with everything and without a production company a
film couldn’t be made. They have to find a director and most of the actors
needed for the main characters. They are also responsible for anything that
goes wrong during the filming, whether that is that an actor gets injured or
property gets damaged.
Most of the funding would have come from the production
company but also from the personal savings of the people behind the idea from
the film, they could also find funding from other sources. Investors and
stakeholders also provide funding as they put money towards the movie and they
get back a percentage of the profits that the film makes.
We wanted the make sure that we named everyone in the titles
in a conventional order and in an order that reflected their importance in the
making, producing, or character role in the film. We had to include the companies
involved with the film first as they had the most importance. Then we had to
include the director as he has the main influence in the making of the film.
Then we included the actors in order of their importance in the film and how
influential their role is in the plot of the film. We used the names being put
in the titles as an opportunity to show that character or person, however this
only applied to the actors so we made sure that the first time the character
was shown was the time when the actors name appeared so that the audience can
put a name to a face.
Sam thistlewood was our cinematographer, our co-editor and
our typography editor. We chose Sam for these roles as he has a steady hand and
he knows how to use a camera well so he was appointed as cinematographer. Sam
also has a basic understanding of editing so he will help out with any editing.
He knows how to use cinema 4D which he will use to add the typography after the
edit.
Sam Hargrave was our producer, editor and sound engineer. He
was chosen for these roles as he is a good leader and is very well organised so
he would make a good producer. Sam has a very good understanding of editing
therefore he is our editor. He also knows a bit about sound and working with it
whilst editing so he will be in charge of all of the sound.
Tom Branch was our casting director, mise-en-scene director
and costume designer. Tom was picked for the role of casting director as he
knows what he wants people to do. Tom has a good understanding of how props
should be arranged in the shot and he knows what props we need so he is the
mise-en- scene director. He is also the costume designer because he knows what
people should be wearing in the scenes.
Glen
Burton was our director, script writer and lighting director. He was picked for
these roles as he has a very good vision of how he wants this production to
turn out so we appointed him as the director. He is also the script writer for
the same reasons. Glen is the lighting director because he knows how the
lighting affects the mood of the scene.
Our film is very similar to the walking dead, lone survivor,
the Bourne series and taken. All of these films were high profile and were
greatly advertised before their release. The producers had to make sure that
they would get the amount of sales that they wanted to get a good amount of
profit and so that they get back at least what they spent on producing and
making the film. We had to make sure that we got the right publicity to do this
we had to look at what the real distribution companies do and how they make
sure their films are out there for the public to see. The most common film distributors in the UK
are lions gate, Colombian pictures, 20th century fox, Paramount
Pictures, universal pictures.
The plot of our opening scenes is that the man that is hiding
in the construction yard is on the run from a group of soldiers that have been
hired by an agency to hunt and kill the man, in the opening titles we don’t
learn any of the characters names. The soldiers arrive via a car, they then all
get out the vehicle and they begin to search the area whilst the wanted man
hears them and begins to pack up all of his stuff. As the soldiers have
searched everywhere but the building that the man is in they breach into the
room and find that the man has already left and they were too late, you then
see the man running away into the dark, this is where the titles end and the
film itself begins to start.
The opening titles from the walking dead are very similar to
ours and from there’s is where we got most of our inspiration, they use the
same as us and they show different scenes for a few seconds so that the audience
can see a building, item or place that will
be featured in that season of the show. Showing small glimpses of the show
makes the audience intrigued because they want to see more of the show to see
how each location and each item links in with the rest of the programme. We also
got the idea to put the names of the actors, director, producers etc. in the
titles as this is what the walking dead do.
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