A preliminary task was what we had to do a group so we could get use to the using the equipment such as the camera and tri-pod, we had get the following shots, a reaction shot, shot reverse shot and a tracking shot that was so that we could get use to having a steady hand when using the camera. I found this task useful because it helped me to gain confidence when using the camera because in my group I was the Camera and Sound person so this task really helped me. When filming I found out that tracking shots do not work well if you are not using the tri-pod it looks unprofessional, so when it came to filming when we used the tracking shot with a tri-pod so it looked professional and did not look unsteady. When I looked back at my tracking shot used during the opening sequence it worked really well and looks professional and our group received compliments on some of our camera shots
Reaction Shot– of the character when he sees that his girlfriend is with another women, this shows the characters facial expression
Mid Shot– this is a mid shot of the character, this shows what the character is wearing and also this helps the audience to relate to the character depending on his situation
Two shot – this shows two character’s in the frame and this shows that the characters are ready to interact with the audience and also prepares for the scene
As a group we decided to create a questionnaire which would help us develop our ideas and help know what the audience wanted, we ranged our questions from basic questions such as are you male or female to more narrowed questions such as what would you prefer to have in a thriller film such as a group or male and female. our resulted varied depending on how many people we asked questions to, the purpose of this questionnaire was to gain enough information and evidence to give us an idea of what the audience would want and expect to see from a thriller film. This proved useful because when filming we could look at our questionnaire and see what type of characters they wanted in the film from the results I have found out what people would like to see in Thriller films.
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 ihave 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 techniqueto use such as a black and white effect.
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.
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 perfectlifestyle 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
During the one week holiday we was asked to start thinking of our own narrative for our thriller film, as when we came back we was going to be put into groups and start to discuss our proper narrative. During my free time in school I started to do some research because I wanted to get a start I started to research: Narrative / Age Ratings / Location / Sound / Actors / Camera Shots / Editing Techniques & Lighting.
On my own I started to look at different Thriller films aged between the age of 12 and 15 because those were appropriate age ratings because there are no Thriller films which are aged at U and PG. I didn't want my film to be an 18 either because then it would be being compared to a horror because most horror's are 18 so I decided a film between 12 and 15 was just right. However I wanted my film to be a 15 because that would be great because of the content I put in will be mild violence but the effect that I would use would be the Kuleshov effect so people expect it without having to see it, or something with a sexual nature but in discreet way.
The narrative I came up was with a new boy comes and makes friends, nobody knows nothing about this new guy but people begin to take a shine to him because he is a nice person, He makes a best friend called Luke. Luke begins to find out more stuff about this new person more or less the basic information and the new guy really starts to open up to Luke. One day the new guy asks Luke if he would like to see something cool, Luke says yes expecting to see something cool. Later on that day they meet up and the new guy makes a nasty change we find out that he is actually a serial killer who kills teenage boys. Luke desperately tried to make an escape but the new guy is too fast, the new guy drags him back to the forest and slaughters him. After that the body is discovered but they never find that killer. That was my own individual idea for making a thriller film, the reason I chose that was because it was different in terms of the narrative such as the killer walks away free.
I started to think about location from previous thriller movies, they are usually set in a house / flat / basement. These are because this relates to generic conventions of thriller film, which relates to a narrative. I decided that a flat or house would be the best location also when it comes to filming. The sound that I would was a creepy but an upbeat song because it would help when something scary is about to come up and I have an upbeat song it will add intensity to the film making the audience become aware and prepared that something scary was about to happen.
I did some research on YouTube to find some scary / creepy thriller soundtracks that I could use which would appeal to the audience. I found this link which I found helpful
Furthermore in my research I had to think about camera shots because, they play a major role and they help portray what you want the audience to see and this helps because with different types of camera shot you can create different types of effects for the audience such as a establishing shot of a scary house, this helps because the audience can see the surrounding from there they can start to make judgements and ask questions which helps to intrigue the audience makes them want to watch more.
Lighting also plays a big role because lighting can also create different effects such as mysterious character you could use high key or low key lighting which makes the character look scarier. From my research that I did, I watched different types of thriller movies which allowed me look at the different types of lighting. I also notice that high key is made to look someone or a location look glamorous and low key to make someone look creepy / mysterious and scary.
