Production Phase 1

This lesson we began filming our thriller film. The first location for filming was an office located on the college premise. It was necessary that I did the majority of the filming as both of my group members were required to take acting roles.

I made a conscious effort to do multiple angle shots so that when editing my group and I would have an array of shots to choose from.

One problem that my group and I encountered was during break time, as existing students at the college kept walking into a shot that we had finally been able to perfect.Another difficulty I faced was filming shots in and around the lift. This was problematic as from some angles were difficult to film from.

In addition to this filming inside of the lift was hard, as the doors would shut every now and again.Despite this, my colleagues and I were able to complete all filming for our thriller within our pre scheduled three-hour lesson.

Planning our Thriller

We had an original idea which contained a stalker/serial killer we was going to follow some one and strangle them to death. However this idea was too simple and had been done many times it was to repetetive. so we had to spend tuesday lesson adding new ideas and creating our storyboard through using pictures. Also our new idea is an idea that has never been done before. Also here we were able to use our old ideas and develope them into better ideas for example the stalker chnged in to a bully, which we felt could appeal to many people as bullying may go unoticed in many schools and shows awearness to people who watch our film.

Pre Production Phase 2 (Storyboarding)

We changed our idea slightly this lesson. We decided to evolve our thriller around an interview situation. An interviewee is in waiting room where he is seen acting nervously and agitated whilst waiting to be called. We decided that we would portray this by filming behaviours associated with nervousness, e.g. perspiration on his brow, sipping water, tapping foot etc.

Then the door to the room is opened by another man, this man turns out to be someone that bullied him when he was at school. There is going to be a close up of the interviewee's face as he has seen the ex-bully.

After which there is a montage of flashbacks of the interviewee being bullied when he was at school.

The interviewee hastily exits the room, followed by the ex-bully at some distance. Interviewee anxiously waits for a lift, he gets inside and as the doors are just about to shut the ex-bully manages to stop them form doing so.

This concept was approved by our teacher, so my colleagues and I were able to storyboard our idea. After storyboarding, we left a sufficient amount of time to discuss props, casting, and attire and production schedule.

Pre Production Phase 1 (Pitch)

At the beginning of the lesson, all groups were given the opportunity to organise the pitches that we had to produce before being given the 'ok' to execute our ideas.

Primarily my group and I decided that the theme for our thriller would be revenge. The storyline behind this theme was about a boy that used to be bullied when he was at school. The ex-victim would then see the boy that had previously bullied him on 'Induction Day' at college. We would then show the ex-victim being bullied at school through the use of flashbacks at various intervals in the film. Eventually the ex-victim would feel the desire to get revenge on the bully.

Two out of the three teachers we pitched our idea to thought it was a good concept. However, one of the teachers did not think it was that plausible, when taking into consideration the amount of time provided to complete the thriller and the duration of the thriller.

Having seen the rest of the classes pitches and with the criticisms we received, through conferring with my colleagues it became evident that we may have been somewhat over ambitious, as it may not be possible to fit this information into the space of two minutes in a clear and concise way.For the rest of the lesson we brainstormed ideas on how we could improve our initial idea and various camera angles and techniques.

Match Cut Execrise (Editing)

In this period, we had to begin and complete all of editing for the match cut exercise, unfortunately we unable to finish editing all of our footage to a high degree. Yet we were able to incorporate at least two match cuts into our Short footage.

It has become apparent that my group members and I will have to sacrifice some hours outside of lesson time to produce a quality thriller film/sequence to the best of our ability. Communication between group members is also crucial; I took it upon myself to swap details with my colleagues.

thriller practical

The secound practical film went much smoother than the first. As i was calm and i did not muck about in the lesson, i was serious as i acted and this enabled us to get better shots and gave us more time for editing. As the first practical we did not get the clips we wanted, yet this time we were able work in a room which enabled us to get better shots. In this practical i learned how to understand hw we can get good shots e.g when to zoom or rotate to get the best clip in that scene. We used the zoom to show my facial expression after the clip were cris done the sign with his fingers to show my reacton. Moreover i learnt how to cut clips to make the film run more smoothly, and how to work with my group and collabrate our ideas to get the best clip we could.

preliminary match cut task

Match Cut Exercise

This lesson we were required to watch a video of a man copying files from a computer to discs, whilst chain smoking.

The purpose of this exercise was to identify and learn the match cut technique.

Then my colleagues and I were given the task to film a conversation where we would make use of the match cut technique and put into practice the 180-degree rule.

My group and I decided that we would film a conversation between two boys speaking about a package. The location for this conversation was in an office in the colleges Media department.

It was necessary for me to do the majority of the filming, as the rest of my team were the actors. I ensured that we filmed the conversation from more than one angle, so that we would have an ample amount of footage at our disposal for at least one match cut shot.

Thrillers 1

This lesson we began by watching a documentary about opening sequences. Following this, the class was provided with a short question and answer activity based on the documentary, after completion we then discussed.
Next, we were able to preview some As Thrillers produced last year. As a class we discussed each of the featured thrillers by saying what we thought to be a good and bad examples if work, we also discussed the technical elements we were able to identify.

One thriller I thought to be particularly effective was of one man taking a brief case to a lift with a bomb in it.
I thought that the students had chosen a good location, Canary Wharf. This showed good planning.

I also like the way the students had made use of the resources the college has to offer, for example using the college lift. I think this also shows good editing, as they were able to incorporate footage taken from two different locations and edit them effectively. This also showed good continuity.

Lastly, I thought the camera work was excellent; I liked the students’ use of varied camera shots. The panning up buildings and the use of close ups.
By watching As Thrillers from last year, I have been able to think about potential locations and camera shots I would like to include in my own thriller.

Casino Royale

(left) Star Daniel Craig, sixth actor to play James Bond 007 in the 2006 Casino Royale film.

We began today's lesson in the Mac room where the class was able to work individually on various clips from the Bond film, Casino Royale.The first task consisted of watching the trailer for Casino Royale.

Then we watched pre-recorded clips of the film's supervising sound editor, Eddy Joseph explaining how you can emphasise certain aspects within a frame and how you can manipulate an audience with sounds that correspond with the mise en scene, but are not visible.

Joseph described this as a way of adding information.We then had the opportunity to move around the sound on selected clips from the Casino Royale film. This task demonstrated that sound has a vital role in how well or how badly an audience will respond to a media text.Next, we were able to create our own soundtrack for three other selected sequences from the Bond film.After which we were given the chance to produce soundtracks for our individual footage that we had produced whilst in our groups, using Soundtrack Pro.

2nd Task In The Last Lesson Before X-MAS

In my thriller, I want to create confusion and a little mystery. I think this would be a good way of getting the audience on their seats and think about what’s going on.The natural lighting that is used is one of the many things that caught my attention and one of the things I liked. It also represents a sense of calm in the city, but the audience do not know that the complete opposite happens after the sun sets.

1st Task In The Last Lesson Before X-MAS

In the lesson before Christmas we were shown a few thriller openings such as 28 Days Later, Collateral, The Shining and What Lies Beneath.We also looked at the different types of thrillers such as -Psychological, Supernatural thrillers, Comedy Thrillers, Political Thrillers, Romance/Murderous Thrillers, Passion Thrillers, Horror Thrillers and Action thrillers.As we analysed the clips, we looked at the Mise En Scene, The Lighting, and use of camera angles, music, editing and setting.The clip that inspired me the most is from 28 days later. I really liked the different camera angles they used and movement. They used wonky angles to indicate the confusion of the character exploring the abandoned deserted city of London. There were more shots such as tilts, low angle and over the shoulder. Long shots were to show how deserted the area was.The clips were short but continuous. The lighting was natural and a yellowy shade. There were also shots of the important places of London to indicate the setting. The Big Ben, River Thames and the buses were shown.I like the way the film starts with confusion and deserted areas. This makes the audience anxious and curious in what is going on.