Thursday 27 January 2011

My Evaluation



Do You Think Your Thriller Film Was Successful?
·         Yes because of the generic conventions used such as:
·         Generic Conventions
·         Blood
·         The music
·         Suspense, Surprise and Shock
·         Types of lighting
·         Low Key – Makes the character look mysterious or intimidating   
·         Make-Up used to make the character look more attractive
·         Camera shots – Close Up to shoe facial expressions or a reaction 

How Does Your Footage Conform To Existing Media?
·          Saw and Dead Silence – Both successful thrillers
·         Generic Conventions used – Blood and Knives
·         Iconography – Things which make it a thriller – Blood, scary music and knife
·         Constructing dramatic narrative for the target audience

 Discuss The Representations Of Your Characters?
·         A male and female
·         Typical storyline, the man the more dominate one kills the scared women
·         Gives a twist to the storyline as he lives two lives
·         Psychological Problems

What Media Production Would Distribute Your Film?
·         Twisted Pictures because they have made successful films such as:
·         Saw
·         Dead Silence
·         Vacancy
·         They are all thrillers
·         Through generic  conventions they helped me to convey a better storyline

Who Is Your Typical For Your Thriller Film
·         15 and above
·         People who enjoy psychological films
·         Men and Women
·         People who enjoy thrillers the shock, surprise and suspense
·         People who have seen, Se7en , Vacancy, Rear Window and Silence of the Lambs

How Did You Attract Your Audience?
·         I attracted my audience through different ways such as:
·         Gore
·         Violence
·         The three S’s – Suspense, Surprise and Shock
·         Stereotypical storyline
·         Adult rated content – To a bare minimum

What Have You Learnt?
·         How to work in a team
·         Final Cut Pro
·         Logic Pro
·         Camera / Video Recorder
·         Tri-pod

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Post Production

During the time of filming, my role was the camera and sound and I had to ensure that I looked after the the cameras and tri-pod's, and that when we was filming that I could make the directors imagination come to live through the film, also to effectively convey the different emotions of the characters and his intention of style through the film which was a psychological thriller. Also as the Camera and Sound I had to create the sound of our thriller, which was very complicating at first as the technology we had to use I had never used before but after some tutorial lesson on how to use it I got on to making the thriller track. When making the sound track, I had to make sure it matched every scene in the film


We used Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, and the Mac Computers this was so that we could edit our final footage and add effects and text to the film, this made the film a lot better because we were able to do things that we could not do on the camera. When I used the programmes we had wide variety of things we could use such as the black and white effect which made things look more bold and added more emotions to the characters facial expressions. Logic Pro allowed us to make the thriller sound track we was important because this would help the up beat soundtrack conventional to a thriller film because this created suspense because as the beat go faster the tension was building up this was so that the target audience would be able to tell that something was about to happen.


The negative that we came across was not everyone was able to agree on the same effects such as the black and white, some members of the group thought that we could have used something else, and some thought that we should use the black and white because it gives of different emotions. Positive from the editing is that when the group was not arguing we got on well and discussed things as we was editing this shows a good sign of team work, and hard working trying to achieve the best grade possible. Furthermore another positive is that we all agreed on the same sound track for our thriller film which did save some time in the editing process because we was able to spend more time on the actual footage.



The skills I have learnt from this post productions i have gained a lot of experience from my final project.  The second piece of technology I used was logic pro, were we had to create a sound track, this is what I found most difficult because I had to create a soundtrack from scratch I had to make the thriller soundtrack which also went with the opening. Although this was not my job role I still wanted a go at editing so I could gain some more experience on more technology, I had a go at editing the clip such as adding the effect of black and white and adding text at the beginning of the film. The reason I wanted to have a go at that was because I wanted to have more of say as well went it came to editing as to say what technique  to use such as a black and white effect.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Production

We thought of the Lea Valley Pathway, this with ideal because it is as exactly what we was looking for because it was long and looked scary, the first day we filmed we failed to film because we it got dark early and the camera wasn’t able to pick the male character walking down this alley way. We decided that as group we should come back when it is brighter and earlier so we could capture what we wanted; the group came back the next day to film. It was much a brighter and we could see much more, this is what we wanted to have when we was filming, this was easier for us because we could film a lot more and get the shots we wanted to when filming the Male Character walking down here.





It took us 4 days to film, we took longer than most groups because we had to make sure that everything was done to a high-quality standard of filming also because the Director and Producer wanted us to strive to achievement the whole group put in extra effort to get the best possible superiority of filming. In our group we did extra filming, such as we did 3 takes of the same scene and then choose the best possible film clip so it would look improved from the one before, this took a couple of hours in some footage because sometimes we all did not agree in the same footage so we just did the scene again until it look excellent.

My role was the cameraman on set, this role was important as my group was expecting high standards and I did not want to let them down so I did my best to film up to a expert standard level of filming so my director would be happy with the camera shots that I had, and we used the tri-pod so that we could make sure that our shots were not blurry. Furthermore with me being the camera man I had to make sure that I had to be in the correct angles for the camera shots so I could follow the storyboard from the director and producer, this also allowed us to create certain types of lighting such as if the camera was facing down on the character it would create low key lighting which made the character more intimidating and mysterious to the audience.


The negative that I came across while filming was the first day we filmed it was too late so we had to do it another day, because it was too dark and the camera could barely pick up anything and that meant that I had felt like I had let the group down, even though it was not my fault. Although the positives of the film is that we managed to get the shots we wanted through hard work and determination which helped us to achieve better results. Futhermore I came across a difficulty when we had to do a shot and I was unable to film it because the anlge it was in, which meant I had to go futher back and if I did I would be in the bushes. The director and I and to come up with a new plan because it was tight alley way, so we thought that we should just shoot the film from another angle.


Wednesday 5 January 2011

Pre Production - Film Title - Group Idea

Narrative - A mystery man is walking down a pathway with a red sports bag. While he is walking down the road he has a flashback from the nights before. Then the audience sees what happens. He meets a girl , at the bar and they get drinking, talking and start flirting. He takes her back to a hotel she thinks it is only a fling but a change of events happen he brutally murders her he then chops her up into small pieces and puts her in the red sports bag and dumps the bag by the river. A missing enquiry for her disappearance takes off.
The Whole Narrative - The overall narrative is that this a married man with a perfect  lifestyle who lives is happy with his carer and children, yet has a sick obsession with women he thinks are dirty, he final snaps and murders a woman, the whole event take place on the. His flashbacks show the build up of his family life up to the point of murder. Giving him a spilt life which is why the film is called 2Faced
Film Title - The reason we have chosen our film to be called 2Faced, was because we felt this was an appropriate title for our narrative. This helps us to follow the generic conventions because as the audience you expect the film title to match the film.  The title gives a sense of suspense of what actually happens on the 2Faced, there is no direct give away unlike most thriller titles like ‘ The kidnap’.
Locations - The locations used will be the following;
1.    Bar


This hotel would have been ideal for our location but, our group came a few problems so we was unable to film at this location so we decided to film at an apartment that someone from our group could lend us, and that was our new location.

2.    Apartment




















This is the location that we chose which looked similar to the one we filmed in which we thought we could still pull off because it still matched the storyline towards the end where the female character gets murdered in a apartment

3.    Pathway




The reason we have chose these locations is because they follow our storyline and also they are conventional. These will be appealing to our audience because they will be under the generic conventions of a thriller film such as when the male character kills the female character in the apartment and then their is a close up of the females character

Mise-En-Scene
1.    Costumes- smart suit, conservative business man

 This makes the male character looks more sophisticated and more attractive to the female character and helps to convey to the audience so that people can relate to him in a way that sometimes people just want to forget their everyday problems







2.    Props- bag, fake blood, wedding ring.

 











This was a important part of the film because this props was to be worn by the male character to show that he is married and that he still goes out and sees women's at bars and pretends to be single. Without this ring we would not be able to relate this to our film title or the narrative of the film

3.    Camera work- extreme close up

  This a picture of woman scared, from a close up view. This is what the female  character in the will also have this emotion when the Male character turn violent on her. This is also to show the reaction of what is happening in the scene this also makes it look much more realistic




4.    Lighting- low key, dark atmosphere
5.    Sound – eerie sounds, upbeat music for the chase.


6.    These are all the things we need to consider when making our film, to make it as realistic as we can to our audience and follow the generic conventions of the film.
Lighting - The lighting that will be used is
·         Low key
·         Natural lighting
·         High key
This is because most thriller films use these for example low key lighting is used to make the character look scarier and mysterious to the audience this is to make the audience for more involved in the film and make them one to watch more.
Natural lighting is used to make things look more realistic such as when our character is walking down the street natural lighting will be used to create realism to the audience
High key lighting will most likely be used in the bar to show that place is glamorous and expensive this makes it more realistic and more appealing to the audience and makes them believe that the place is real
Sound - The sound that will be used in the film is:
·         On screen sound
·         Off screen sound
·         Non-diegetic.
Non-diegetic will be used for any music that is edited in which will most likely to be used to build up suspense and tension for the audience. This also helps keep the audience interested
On screen sound will be for anyone that speaks or has a conversation such as a phone call or anyone who speaks face to face
Off screen sound will be used in the bar, such as when you can hear people laughing and talking in the background this will be used to create a realistic environment within in the bar