When we first began to come up with ideas on what to do for the opening sequence the Thriller genre seemed to come up in ideas more often than any other. This teamed with our extensive research into the Thriller genre that we conducted during the preliminary task seemed to make the decision for us, its going to be a Thriller. Through my own research into the Thriller genre and its sub genre's here is a conclusion of what the Thriller genre consist's of:
Thriller is a broad genre of literature, film and television that includes numerous and often overlapping sub-genres. Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains. Literary devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is villain driven plot, whereby he presents obstacles the hero must overcome. -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(genre)
After our extensive research was conducted we came by the decision to base it around the sub-genre of a mystery/psychological Thriller.
Ideas
Before even discussing on the location or the actors for our peice we felt it neceesary to come up with the plot first. This way if we think of nothing but what we want to happen it allows us to come up with the greatest ideas without letting locations or anything get in the way, we would make anything work to fit in with our plot. We seemed to have a trend growing within the ideas that we came up with whereby the protagonist is in some sort of chase sequence. We has this idea come up within several differant sub-genre's until eventually we came to the conclusion that the mystery sub genre suited us best. With our sub genre chosen we needed a firm basic plot to choose, considering the chase sequence came up a lot we put together ideas as to why it is a good thing to do. This allowed us to see the good points aswell as the negative points of an idea.
Although a chase sequence doesnt sound particularly challenging to make, we came up with several very good reasons as to why we wanted to do it. Firstly considering it isnt entirely complicated gives us huge oppurtunities for the variety of camera angles and shots that we can use. The plot of the story is able to work around what shots we want to use. By having so many oppurtunities this will help us to create a piece of film that isnt visually boring whilst at the same time is authentic and realistic.
The only negative thing that a chase sequence seemed to deliver was how we werent entirely sure that we would be able to fill the 2 minute quota that we were set at the start without the film begining to get boring and mundane. However our troubles and worries were completely gone when we began to film due to our plot allowing so many camera angles and shots. This makes the peice of film so much more exciting, we were able to fit in as many shots as we wanted which really completed the film.
Actors
With our basic plot starting to take shape we felt it best to confirm what actors we would use to help us gain a better image of what will happen during our film. With Kourteney being a fellow media student aswell as a budding actress we felt it best to choose her because she will know of the seriousness of the film. Kourteney is in the same situation as us in having to make an opening sequence so will act professionally enabling us to get the job done quickly and smoothly. We only needed two actors to play the roles of chaser and the one being chased. Kourtney was decided as the one being chased and the chaser enivitably ended up being me. This we felt was a good thing because we are able to keep the group small enabling us to work much more effieciently aswell as keeping our own ideas within our group. I do also have acting experience with my GCSE in Drama and have acted alongside Kourtney before, this would all add to the effectiveness and helps keep the piece authentic. Now that we had finalized our actors this enabled us to also finalize our plot becuase we were able to visualise what the shots looked like with the actors and how we could work around any flaws.
The Plot
As said before this is a chase sequence along the Mystery Thriller genre involving Kourteny as the person being chased and myself as the 'chaser'. The basic plot which we finalized on went something like this.
Kourtney is drunk wearing ripped up clothes and her face is covered in smudged make up to portray an apparant party/night out the night before. I am following her wearing all black and with my face covered by a plain white mask. I am possibly in love with Kourtney which is the reason for my stalking. Kourtney is a scared person, scared of where she is and who she is. Upon seeing me she runs whilst i walk behind her, she never manages to gain any ground from me which leads me to have a seemingly superhuman existance. After several snazzy camera angles and shots it eventually leads to Kourtney breaking her stilletto and falling on the ground. The shot then focuses on sam coming up from behind her fallen body...
This is the finalized plot which we set ourselves off with to start filming. The seemingly simplistic, basic plot which we ended up on we felt left doors wide open while we were filming to adapt and change things for the better. This is why we never completely finalized on what shots to do, we didnt want to constrict ourselves too much because we felt this would affect the overall authentic feel we were trying to acheive. We discovered that to create a good piece of film you must be willing to change and adapt certain things in the heat of filming, you are definately at your best in making decisions when you are on scene in the heat of the action. This is why our basic plot worked well for our group, the ability to change things without causing problems was excellent and paved the way for more exciting prospects in the film.
Setting
Our setting for the preliminary task was excellent, it was eery which helped the peice become and authentic thriller, it was basically abandoned which helped us in filming because it was easy to set up a film set quickly and it was close to school so we had the ability to film whenever we needed too. We took these excellent neccesaties with us when we went to film our Opening Sequence.
With it being a Thriller genre we needed a place just like the Preliminary task-abandoned and remote. We needed somewhere with a large amount of space but that was also reasonable close to school so the whole group could get there. So where better than old school field which has now become a building site! It was a perfect place to film, it contained old crates and building materials which helped in creating an authentic feel. It had a very large area in which we could film and was actually on school grounds so was as close as we were ever going to get. The only problem that we could see in filming there would be the huge school building that would appear in the background of our shots. However we managed to work around that whilst filming and excluded it via some very clever camera work from our shots.
The only other problem we encountered with our setting was that although isolated from normal school pupils, some sixth formers wanted to come down to the field during there study periods. This to begin with caused problems, we had to ask a group of boys to move there football game from our field to the front field which they werent entirely pleased about. But after a while we managed to work alongside these people and adapt to there needs aswell as ours, moving some people behind trees whilst we were shooting or even including them in reviewing a shot or two. This not only worked around the problem of filming but also gave us an insight into what the public may think of certain shots. Overall the setting we chose worked well for us and as a group we are happy at how it added a certain flair to the piece of film.
Synopsis
'After a night filled with drugs, drink, sex and violence Kourtney finds herself stumbling through an abandoned building site complete with debris, rubble and Sam; a love struck boy with a capability to kill.'
Characterisation
Our piece involves only two characters, me and Kourtney. Kourtney is the female protagonist drunk wearing ripped up clothes and her face is covered in smudged make-up to portray a party/night out the night before. She is the one being chased and it is obvious to the audience she is a party animal who has been involved in violence the night before. Her skirt is torn in several places and twinned with the smudged make-up lend to the authentic feel of the film. She is a mundane ideology which is common in any Thriller. All her clothing is of darker colours to contribute in making the film authentic within our chosen genre. Myself on the other hand is the one doing the chasing. I wear completely black clothing to give nothing away and make me seem to the audience mysterious, lending to the mystery thriller genre of the piece. I wear a white face mask to cover up my identity, this also looks particularly scary to the audience so works well within the genre. We wanted as a group to show my face as little as possible to shroud me in mystery, this challenges the camera work yet also creates good effect in building tension. I am a confused boy who has all the usual teenage angst, love and the capability to kill!
Props
The use of props within film is very important in creating a sense of realism and making the whole thing look authentic. The props we used in our filmmaking involved a Knife and a white face mask. They both helped develop my character as the 'chaser' due to them being considerably thrilling to the audience to see on screen. It also provided a great authentic feel to the film and made it look much less amateur. The knife was used in the final apparant killing of Kourtney and in the suspenseful build up, whilst the face mask was there to shroud my character in mystery.
Risk Assesment
Taking into account the rural building site location we chose to film at we had to keep in mind any possibly dangers that would cause a risk to the group. The first and most obvious risk that was presentd to us involved the knife (pictured above) that i used to portray the murder of kourtney in our opening sequence. To combat any injuries, when the knife was not in use we took extra care in making sure it was placed out of the way so as not to accidentaly cause an injury. The second possible risk came when i filmed kourtney stumbling past whilst standing on top of a large green container. The risk presented to me here was that i could slip and fall, seriously injuring myself. To combat this we told Billy to stand nearby to act if any fall occured. By taking care and being sensible throughout we managed to avoid any fatalities whilst filming our piece.
Editing
The editing part of our piece seemed to come natrually to all of us involved. When something did not look right we all instantly thought of several good ways to change and adapt our piece until it fitted together beautifully. We used the commonly known editing software 'Sony Vegas Pro' because it was a very simple program to grasp control of whilst still allowing the use of several media effects such as fading and filtering.
Before applying any music to the piece we felt the need to edit everything beforehand and then just work the music around the already edited clips. The reason we did this was to gain a visually pleasing look to the audience without having to adapt it to the music.
During the week we set aside for editing we unfortunately lost all the edited work we had already done mid way through the week. However rather than see this as something bad we took a more positive approach thinking that we now knew exactly how we wanted to edit our film. We saw the second editing as a chance to not only review how we edited it in the first place, but make changes for the better. Overall the unforeseen error that occured really worked for the best as it allowed us to improve the visual flow of our peice. We did seem to enounter several problems whilst editing but as a team we always managed to find ways to combat any situation.
Before editing we had a good 10 minutes of footage so obviously had to cut out a large chunk of the film to fit in with the 2 minute quota. In some cases we had to make tough decisions on which shots to use and which ones to throw away. The first decision we were confronted with came by the shot in which kourtney's heel of her shoe is shown walking towards the camera and stepping over it. I felt that the initial soundtrack of the footsteps added an eery feel to the film, wheras michael felt that the music should be left to flow over the top allowing a smooth sound. We eventually ended up somewhere in the middle, we allowed the music to carry on running but dimmed it down slightly so that the footsteps can be heard. This added very thrilling notes to the soundtrack and maintained a creepy feel to the piece.
Another key decision that had to be made on most clips was whether to shorten them down or not. Some clips went on for a good 30 seconds which we all believed got visually boring for the viewer. We decided to try and include as many differant shots into the piece but have them as short as possible to try and portray the confused state of mind the character of kourtney is in. I feel this worked particularly well linking especially well with the finalised music.
A particularly good decision that we as a group made was to include a faded black screen mid way through the chase sequence and apply a heartbeat noise. Not only did this add an eery feel to the clip but it left the viewer visually wondering what will come up next rather than the normal chase sequence. We realised that when the clip was to resume a fade back into the normal shot we need to make it explode onto the screen so its not an anit-climax. To do this we speeded up a clip and speeded up the music making the shot look like its bursting onto the screen suprising the viewer and foreshadowing kourtney's upcoming end.
After finalising the editing we sat and watched the clip once over to see how well it all flowed and whether we achieved the thriller type genre we were going for. We were incredibly happy at how good it looked but agreed something was missing. The shots just didnt have the edge we were looking for so to combat this we decided on darkening all the shots. The colour balance can be changed from brighter to darker so by darkening the shots it adds an eery feel to the piece, a sense of hopelessness, while also foreshadowing kourtney's impending doom.
Overall im very happy with how we all edited our opening sequence and feel it has been a great success.
Soundtrack
Originally it was decided that Michael was going to make the music for our opening sequence, however through a lack of resources this was not possible. So instead we sat down and decided what music would fit in with the Genre of our peice, whilst still maintaining the mood we were going for. Our eventual decision landed on a band called 'Borgore' who play music along the gorestep genre. This we felt added a sense of urgency when the chasing was taking place, but was also creepy and eery when we needed it to be.
Filming
The filming of our piece seemed to come very naturally to all of our group. We all made great decisions in camera shots and movements that added a great effect to our piece of film. We did however come across several problems that we had to find solutions to overcome.
Although the location of our piece of film did provide with several huge advantages in the filming as mentioned earlier, there was the aspect of the school being on the same grounds which we somehow had to cut out of the shots. Through some careful editing and clever filming techniques i think we managed to cut it out as much as possible and even if the school is shown its not instantly recognisable as a school.
Another problem we faced was how we were not able to film all the shots on one day so had to try and replicate the same weather conditions and keep the props and appearance as similar as possible to the day before. We managed to keep this realism and overcome the problem by looking back on the shots from the day before and replicating the scenario. This all adds to the continuity of the piece.
Storyboard
Here are our storyboard drawings full of shots and angles which we will incorporate into our piece of film. They may seem very basic at first but we felt this didnt limit us in the shots we could include and gave us a reasonable amount of guidance when shooting. I have written the title of each shot and its effects below:
1)
This is our ESTABLISHING SHOT and will be the first shot in our piece. This shot will set the scene of the piece and mixed with the eery music provides the thrilling feel we are trying to achieve. The shot starts by having the camera at the top of the trees and slowly moving it down to head height ready for a drunk kourtney to walk into shot. The height of the trees allows for an almost 'boxed in' effect that will make the audience feel as if they are contained, a thrilling aspect.
2) This second shot will involve the camera being placed on the floor allowing kourtney to walk straight over the top. We did this ON THE FLOOR SHOT to establish kourtney's drunken state and also allow us to get a good close up shot of her heel as she walked over the camera, adding to the effectiveness of the piece.
3) This is a
ON THE FLOOR REVERSE SHOT which will provide continuity from the last shot.
4) This picture shows a
HIGH ANGLE SHOT which will make Kourtney seem much more vulnerable to the audience possibly foreshadowing something dreadful to come. It also provides an overview of the setting we used to film in.
5) This
CLOSE UP shot will further the characters aspects, because of the smeared make-up etc it furthers Kourtney's vulnerable aspect.
6) This is an example of an
OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT. This is important as its the first introduction of the apparant 'killer'. Because we were trying to conceal as much of the killers identity as possible the way we portrayed him as dangerous was his dark clothing and carrying of a knife.
7)This is a
LONG SHOT which we will use to see kourtney acknowledgement of the killer and the danger she is in, whilst also providing another view of the setting for the audience allowing them to set the scene in their minds.
8) This is another example of an
OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT which will be used to portray the first example of the chase. This also allows us to see the film from a differant perspective, that of the killler.
9)This is another example of a
CLOSE UP but this time it shows the mysteriousness of the killer from kourtney's viewpoint. This shot follows on from the last one in the sense that in the last shot I was walking and kourtney was running yet i am still close behind lending to me having almost supernatural powers, keeping with the Thriller genre.
10) This is a shot used as a
GENERAL OVERVIEW where kourtney is pushed onto a mound.
11) This is a high angle
OVER THE SHOULDER SHOT which empathises Kourtney's helpless character with me being the dominant figure in the shot.
12) This is a POINT OF VIEW SHOT which teamed with a red frame made me seem much more inhuman, adding to the Thriller aspect.
13) This is where I have finally chased down Kourtney and basically is the conclusion of the chase. It is another GENERAL OVERVIEW shot which is good as it gives a good overview of the events that are happening before the viewer.
14) This final shot is of me walking away from the murder scene with my mysterious mask in hand. This leaves the audience guessing as to who i could be and why i was wearing the mask in the first place. It is really an anti climax of sorts and leaves the audience wanting to watch more of the film.
By having this storyboard in hand we were able to make decisions without having any conflict within the group. We obviously didnt follow the storyboard exactly and added several shots to the piece but all in all it came in handy in shooting our film.
