2. Costumes

The costumes that we will need will be:

A bathrobe that the wife will be wearing which we can buy.
A suit for the husband will be messy and shabby to fit his hungover characteristics.
The friend will either be wearing a suit as well or an all black outfit with a beanie.


The reasons for these costume choices is because we think that they will match the mise-en-scene and depict the vibe that we are going for.

1. Characters and Cast

The characters we will need in the sequence will be two men and a woman. A male and female lead and a male friend. They will all be adults so we will hopefully cast teachers.

The woman that we want to play the female lead is Claire (Sociology). She will probably be the most important actor in the sequence as the majority of the shots will be on her.

The man that we want to cast Adam and for the friend Media Mike.

The steps forward now would be to ask the teachers if they are willing to participate. We won't hold auditions for the cast.

The back-up actors will be Katie (Media) as the female lead, Maths Mike and any other male teacher that would be willing to act.

Outline of Idea

Task One:

Long Summary of the Full Plot.

The full plot of the story will be about, after the opening sequence, it is about the woman and how she lives her life as a secret hitman. It shows the problems that she faces and the missions that she is given.

Another possibility of how the whole movie could be played out is that it is the man and the woman’s story leading up to that opening sequence. How they ended up in this situation and their story together. It shows the dynamic of their relationship and how they hide their secret professions from each other.

Task Two:
A short 4/5 sentence summary of the Opening Sequence only.

The setting of the sequence is in an apartment, specifically and bathroom and bedroom. The man wakes up in the bathroom obviously hungover, gets up puts on some clothes. Goes into the bedroom, starts waking up, doing his morning routine. There is a woman in the bed and she slowly starts to wake up.  The man gets a phone call, he picks it up, not realising that the woman is waking up. The voice on the other end of the phone is talking about a job that the man needs to go to and keeps declining the job. She overhears the conversation and slowly dresses herself, heads over to the man, pulls out a revolver and shoots him in the back of the head, picks up the phone and says ‘I’ll do it’ and hangs up.

Task Three:
Location, characters, props - What do you need? Have you scouted anywhere?

The location we film in, we’ll have to have a location with a realistic bathroom and a bedroom. The specific location is yet to be decided by our group. A few options we have for the apartment are Adam’s house, a Day student’s house or a hotel that we can rent out for a day. For the characters, the female character will most likely be an older looking A2 girl. For the guy, it doesn’t really matter who we use. A younger looking man, we could use a younger looking teacher or an older looking A2 student. The props that we will need, will be a revolver and a mobile phone. For costumes, we’ll need a suit for the man and a bathrobe and leather suit for the woman. 

Thriller- Test Shoot

Matt and Luke Pitch

We pitched the Final Draft Idea to Matt and Luke, the feedback main feedback that they gave back to use was that it would be a difficult location to film in. They said that first, it probably couldn't be built in Hurtwood or filmed anywhere in Hurtwood as it is an apartment. This means if we were to go ahead with the apartment location we would either have to film in someone's house or film in a hotel room. It means having more complications such as, setting up equipment, possibly booking hotel rooms, travel time e.t.c. Matt said that we shouldn't let the location of the idea drag us down and still be open to new ideas. Although, our group decided against as we feel like the idea is best set where it is. The pitch itself went alright. We communicated our idea pretty well, although upon reflecting on it we may have missed out on a few items. For example, they perceived the apartment as a very luxurious apartment because of the connotation of drugs lying around and wealth. We decided that the apartment doesn't have to be luxurious, it can be a very standard apartment.

We have discussed the possibility of Adam's house which would be a lot less hassle than a hotel room, but it is a family house meaning the mise-en-scen maybe be not be appropriate for the context, we may not have time construct the set that we want and in addition to that it is still his house and we have to respect that. We haven't had 100% certainty from Adam about using his house, but he did say that we probably could.

The next steps from here would be to confirm with Matt and Luke that we want to go ahead with the apartment location.Then get more feedback from them, probably get shut down, but hopefully if we suggest that Adam would be okay with using his house then it may help.

Research

A movie we were thinking we could take inspiration from is Mr. & Mrs. Smith, our film is quite similar in that they are both husband and wife assassins that don't know technically know about each others profession. Obviously our sequence won't be like this, but we can pull inspiration from it.

The trailer:

Thriller Sequence Final Draft Idea

The setting is an average apartment, but the audience can see that the people are rather wealthy, nice bedroom and bathroom. The scene starts with shots of the bathroom and bed room to establish that. There is a girl in the bed. Around there room there's drugs, alcohol, passports and a revolver. The man wakes up leaning against the bathtub or on the floor of the bathroom. He is obviously very hungover, he wakes up, puts on some clothes and does a line of coke. He then exits the bathroom and he sees the girl slowly waking up. There will be a few lines of dialog and woman will be portrayed as a very conventional, stereotypical role of a female. He then gets a phone call from someone, he picks up the phone, and it is established that there is a job that he has to do implying that he is part of the mafia or he is a hit-man.

 He starts talking about the job in front of the girl, not really caring that she is there. He says something like 'Nah, sorry I can't do it today I'm too fucked up' and the man on the other side says something like 'Just do it'. She then slowly gets up from the bed, she puts on some sort of clothing and the shots are switching back and forth from her to him and her in the background. She slowly approaches the man as he his busy negotiating himself out of the job. She then picks up the revolver from the table, shoots the man dead, picks up the phone and says 'I'll do it.', hangs up and scene ends.

Thriller Sequence What Happens Next- First Draft Idea

Based on the initial discussions with your group, what do you plan to do next?

Since concluding the 'first draft' of our idea, we have been out shooting a test scenes and sequences. Using actors from our group and areas around the school we filmed a several shots and with the test footage put together a very short sequence to give the group an idea of what the film may look like. It was also helpful to explore how we were going to execute the shots and put things more into perspective. Today, we gave a pitch to Mike about our idea and he gave us lots of useful feedback, although we didn't have much time to talk about it, we did manage to concluded that we were going to give the woman in the scene much bigger of a part and take out the scenes with the razor. The rough idea that we discussed was, the man was going to wake up in the same place, leaning against the bathtub, he would have obviously have had a rough night. There will still be drugs and alcohol in the scene, he will then get a call from his boss and they will start discussing the a job for him to do. He doesn't realise that his wife/girlfriend is in the room as he is too out of it and his wife starts getting mad and packs up her stuff and tries to leave him. This is all we have got to so far and will continue developing the idea tomorrow. The next stages are beginning to formula this idea to pitch to Matt next Friday.

Getting into groups and the process of deciding on an idea.

This process for us was relatively simple, we were given our group. This was really good, I was really pleased with the people I was put with. Our group dynamic is really good as there is no one who is really taking control of everything, the roles are all quite balanced.  I feel our group has a good range of skills and quite similar ideas therefore it was really easy to combined our ideas together. We took Matt’s as a basis and added elements from Kami and I’s ideas. With this initial idea we were able to expand, take that idea further and contribute to coming up with an idea together.


The thriller will open with establishing shots of the bedroom and bathroom (Warm lightning and positive sounds) constantly interrupted by shots of the protagonist shaving which eventually cuts to the protagonist in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor. Afterwards the protagonist gets up and puts on clothes and bandages around the cuts on his arm (Cold lightning and non-diegetic disturbing music and sounds effects). Following the main character, he enters the bedroom in which there is a girl sleeping who wakes up. The two begin to chat, during in which the protagonist mood lightens and his depression is hidden  (lightning stays cold but music and sounds turn positive). After a certain time the main characters phone rings, to which he answers, talks for a couple of seconds, picks up his items from the bedroom, says his goodbyes to the girl in bed and exists the setting.

Thriller Sequence Initial Idea and Presentation

The idea that I chose to present was the one with the razor blade. A brief synopsis of this idea is based around a middle aged man. He wakes up in his very average apartment and he goes over to the mirror in his room to shave. He takes out his cutthroat razor and begins to shave as he is shaving, there is a big emphasis on the sound as it is the one building the tension. It begins off playing a rather happy song, a little bit contrapuntal to the scene but as the scene progress the music becomes distorted and sharp, building tension for the rest of the scene. After the man finishes shaving he pierces his own skin with the razor to make sure it is sharp enough and the camera focuses on his reflection on in the mirror then focuses out and on the to the background, still through the reflection of the mirror, and the audience can see a man or woman tied up behind him. You can see the body bloody and almost passed out, the body stirs for a moment realizes that the man is awake. They then being to wriggle around in the restrains and there is muffled screaming heard from the mouth as it is covered up by a cloth. The camera then refocuses on the man face in the reflection, the man then sadistically smiles and turns his back to the mirror and walks towards the person, razor in hand. There is then a black out.

Presenting to the class and having the class present to us was really helpful to develop my idea further and in addition to that I was able to think of new ideas or variations of ideas. Firstly, presenting to the class helped me because of the feedback that they gave me ideas that I could have included within my idea. For example, they said that I could have more of a tension build up in my idea. They also said that they liked how much I took into account sound and how simple yet effective my idea was. As well as this, hearing the class present their ideas was really good as well. It gave me an overall perspective of what the general idea was and I was able to see a clearer picture of who I could see myself working with in the group because of the similarity in our ideas. There were aspects of my classmates ideas that I could see in my idea or a different way to progress my own idea with a combination of someone else’s idea.

Preliminary Sequence- Pasynkiewicz, Maclean, Bird, Henderson

Preliminary task- Storyboard

Thriller Idea Brainstorm

Studio Lesson 4: Preliminary Task

In the studio lesson, started on working on the preliminary task. The purpose of this task is to prepare us for the thriller sequence which will be the main piece of course work this year. It is very important to practise with the equipment we will be using as well as practise the methods of creating the film.

We were shown the story board and briefly instructed on how the scene would go. Then we formed the groups and were taken into the main studio to work on shooting the film. Within our group of four, we assigned different roles. A director, a cameraman and two actors. We discussed that, although we had certain roles we would work together to create the sequence rather than have a power dynamic where we were ordered around. This worked really well because we were all on pretty much the same wave length, had similar ideas to each other or had ideas that corresponded well with the other ideas. As we had worked efficiently with each other, we managed to film the long shot, mid shot, over the shoulder shot and close up shot very quickly leaving us a lot of time to spare. We then started to get more experimental with different cinematography, using more complex shots like POV shots, Ariel shots and different camera movements such as panning and tilting. We also applied several handheld and tracking camera movements to make the audience to feel as though they are involved in the action. We also expanded more on the story line giving it more of a definite ending rather than the scene sort of cutting off which was shown in the story board. 

Overall, I think that this lesson went really well, I was able to get a firmer grasp of film making and also able to expand my knowledge of different cinematography and how to apply it within a scene. This task was really enjoyable as well because our group worked well together and the ideas we came up with were harmonious with everyone else within the group.

Different types of Thriller Sub Genres/Hybrid

Psychological Thrillers

This is a thriller genre which specifically emphasizes on psychology or the psychology of a character. The suspect usually uses psychology rather than physical strength to get the victims, although usually the suspense of the film is created through two characters rather than just one aggressor and one victim. These two characters are often battling each others through mind games and trying to demolish the other's metal state. In terms of the audience, it usually takes a lot of thinking so it's not suitable for younger people or people who don't enjoying thinking in movies.

Examples of Psychological Thrillers: Se7en, The Machinist, The Silence Of The Lambs

Action Thriller

The Action thriller genre usually includes guns, explosion, set pieces and more violence than the The French Connection and Die Hard. Although this films may include aspects of crime and mystery action. The story usually takes place in a limited space or just one location. For example a single building, a ship, plane or vessel. The location is usually seized by threat or some form of enemy, but then usually saved by a single hero who fights an extended battle with the enemy.
usual thriller film. It also includes race against the clock style tension, and a very clean antagonist. The genre was developed in the 70s and 80s with the introduction to

Examples of action thrillers: Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Die Hard, The French Connection, Lethal Weapon, Mad Max: Fury Road, Kill Bill

Erotic Thrillers

This type of thriller that emphasis on eroticism and there is usually a sexual relationship involved in the main plot. This sub-genre became more popular in the 1980s. I think that elements of this genre
developed from some of the Bond films and how there always quite a large segment of the film devoted to the Bond girls in among the action of the film. A few examples of Erotic Thrillers are: Sea of Love, Basic Instinct and Dressed to Kill

Disaster Thrillers

This disaster thriller is a thriller where the main plot is a disaster that happens with in the movie. It includes any kind of disasters that affects a large group of people and it contains events that cause peril to mankind through a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or epidemic. The stories usually involve people who are trying to survive the best way possible, Often also trying to save as many people as possible from the even or the effects of the event that may kill them otherwise.

Examples of Disaster Thriller: Everest, Deep Impact, The Day After Tomorrow

Studio Lesson 3: Editing

In studio lesson 3, we were introduced to editing in Adobe Premiere. We were taught how to organise all the files, duplicating them and adding them into their corresponding project bin (folder).
We then were taught about the playback screen, the timeline screen and the timeline itself. We were also showed the audio and video tracks and taught the function of them. And he also included different shortcuts (I & O) to make the editing process easier. It was basically just the general set-up and functions of Adobe Premier.

This lesson was necessary for the class to be successful in the course work this year. The majority of the practical work will be edited in Adobe Premier and it is key that we know how to use the software well. The style of teaching was really effective for me because the lesson was really hands on. We were given the freedom to properly experiment with the software. The main practical coursework of the year (the thriller sequence) will be edited on Adobe Premier as well as the Preliminary Task which will be shot next week.

Studio Lesson 2: 'Sequences and 180 degree rule'

Yesterday, we went into the studio and learned about the 180 degree rule and started a project on two different sequences.

The 180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule is a rule used all the time during film and is very important to understand as a film maker. An imaginary line (axis) sets up the boundaries for the rule, when filming a sequence with cut shots, it basically instructs the camera operator and cinematographer to stay on only one side of the line (axis) when filming all of those shots. This prevents flipping the shot as it makes the film more confusing.

Although some films do use the 180 degree rule to make the film different in terms of cinematography.

In The Shinning, Stanley Kubrick shoots wide shots from both directions, a 180-degree flip, crossing the line

Sequencing 

We learnt about sequencing and stated shooting our own sequences. We also applied the 180 degree rule to the film. Our film was very simple basically consisted of long shots, medium shots and close-up shots. The actual content of the film was just an actor picking up a toy motorbike, looking at it and then putting it back down. The second sequence that we filmed was slightly more complicated, we included to actors in the frame and we played around with more shots (over the shoulder shots) and angles. Although we didn't have much time to do this, we attempted to white balance the shots.

Poster Analysis- 'Platoon'

Film posters are a medium of advertisement and presentation. Posters are used to suggest the genre, what may happen in the movie and to generate hype about the movie. 

This essay is an analysis for the poster advertising the film ‘Platoon’. This film is a 1986 American action/war film written and directed by Oliver Stone, starring

Tom Bringer, Willem Dafoe and  Charlie Sheen. Stone wrote a lot of the film based off of the Vietnam War and his experiences in the U.S army. 

Although this image looks quite simple, there are several different subtle aspects of this poster that basically tells you the majority of the information written above. Firstly, the setting of the image looks like a very rural jungle and also quite a tropical jungle. This is because of how all of background is all trees and grass, more specifically palm trees which you can only find in tropical nations. Also in the background there are several other figures dressed in army uniform and carrying weapons, this enforces the idea that it is about the army.  In the centre of the image there is a man, he is covered in blood and his uniform is ripped. Firstly, because he is wearing an army uniform, that uniform is iconography for a war film, and because his uniform his bloody and ripped we can predict that this movie will be somewhat violent. As it is an American war film and it is obvious that the setting is somewhere tropical, one can make the assumption that this film is specifically set during the Vietnam War. Another thing that we can assume about the film from this poster is there may be something tragic, this is because right in the centre of the image is a man and what implies that there is going to be tragedy, is his stance. He is on his knees, with his arms up to the sky and his head tilted back. His position suggests that he is distraught and demonstrates that this film may include sadness and disparity as well. Another thing about his stance that I found interesting is that he is gesturing to the main title. Although this is probably not intended, your eyes automatically fall onto the title.  

The lighting of this image is quite dark. First of all there is a full black boarder around the image that contains the text and the coolness of the actual image is high. This gives the grass a more bluer, darker tint. Because the overall colour of the image is black, it gives it a more mysterious feel. The connotation of black is strength, seriousness, power and authority. This is another way to suggest to the viewer about the film. 

The main title of the film is printed in bold metallic font and the two ‘o’s in “Platoon” are replaced with dog tags. This, again, is used to signify the army as dog tags are usually associated with the army. 

Just above the title it reads “An Oliver Stone film” and below the image it mentions the production company, the producers and the names of the main actors. They include this text because it is a selling point for the film. A lot of audience will be more inclined to watch a film where the recognise the actors, director or producers. 

Overall, I think that this movie poster is a really great movie poster. It is quite subtle, but you are able to get the general gist of the movie just from one image.

Studio Lesson 1: Intro to cameras and equipment

In class, we went into the studio and learnt about the cameras we might be using for our films. We were able to start using the equipment, hands on. During the lesson, we were taught how to set up a camera and a tripod right from the very beginning. The good thing about this is that the teacher didn't assume that we knew anything and took things slowly so that everybody was comfortable with the equipment that we were handling.

He showed us how to set up a tripod. This included how to set up the legs, axis, mounting plate and the head. 

He also taught us how to adjust all of these things. Then he taught us how to set up three different types of cameras. 

Sony NX5

Sony FS100

Canon 5D

The skills we learnt were putting in the battery, putting on the lens and basic function techniques of the individual cameras (on/off, zoom, focus, setting white balance). We then were able to practise using these techniques on things and people around the room. This practise gave a good sense of how the cameras should be handled when in use and when not in use. 

In my opinion, this lesson was very valuable to all of us as we are going to be using this equipment for 2 years and its important to learn everything about them which does include the very simple things like putting in the battery.  

Camera Angles and Camera Movement 16/9/15

Camera Angles

Establishing shot (E.S)

-To establish setting or scene for the benefit of the audience

Extreme Long Shot (E.L.S)

-To show the surrounding in more detail, more likely to feature people.

Long Shot

-Full body shot, used to see the everything in the frame

Mid Long Shot

-Also known American Angle

-From the thigh upwards 

Mid Shot
-From the waist upwards

Close-up

-This shot includes shoulders (sometimes) and face

-Used to focus on the details of someones face

Extreme Close Up

-Focusing on something very specific

-Typical example would be eyes

High angle

-Used to make the audience feel very small and inferior

-Status shot

Low Angle

-Used to make the audience feel inferior

-Status shot

High VS Low

-Interchanging between high and low

-Status shot

Point of view (POV)
-From the characters point of view

Over the shoulder shot
-A shot from over the characters shoulder
-Usually used during a conversation
-Could be used to make the audience feel isolated from the conversation

Canted Angle (Dutch Angle)
-For the audience to feel disoriented and uneasy

Camera Movement

-Pan: Moving the camera lens to one side of the frame to another

-Zoom: Zooming involves changing the focal length of the lens to make the subject appear closer or further away in the frame

-Tilt: Moving the camera lens up or down while keeping its horizontal axis constant.

-Track: Camera moves left, right, front, back tracking the characters or the focus of the scene

-Hand Held: Makes the camera more mobile and for the audience to feel as though the are involved within the action of the film

Submerged- analysis of how tension is created

Submerged

 The opening sequence is about two men who are investigating the ocean inside of a submarine, the men look as though they work for the government or are officials. Inside of the submarine, the men find what they think is a ship and immediately their radio and electronics stop working, leaving them not able to communicate and stranded there.

Through the opening sequence of the film submerged, the audience is already able to establish the vibe of the entire film. The scene uses dark lighting throughout, the sound effects creates ambiance as the submarine produces eerie sounds, the soft music as well tends to the scary atmosphere of the scene. The intensity of the scene is quite high throughout. Although during the first half of the sequence nothing has happened, because of the aura, the audience is able to predict that there could be something 
happening.

The tension is built up slowly through the use of mostly dialogue. The two men see something on the monitor and discuss what it is which is when the tension builds up. They use quotes such as "What the hell is that?" and "The electronics system is down". Something that could be improved in this film is that the dramatic music comes in right at the beginning, therefore there isn't a steady build up of tension when something does go wrong. The only cue is the dialogue.